Police call for sale of gold to be made illegal

Registered cash for gold dealers call on police to crack down on the black market.

ST. JOHN’S, Antigua, Friday February 10, 2012 – Antigua police are calling on policymakers to bring a complete end to the buying and selling of gold in that country in the wake of an upsurge in petty crimes directly linked to that trade.

Head of the Criminal Investigations Department, Mr. Nuffield Burnett has made it clear that there was a need for proper regulations to make it harder for people to sell stolen jewellery.

But registered cash for gold dealers state they already follow strict guidelines, and kept records, and are calling on police to crack down on the black market instead.

One businessman who asked not to be identified said authorities needed to pay more attention to those going through communities asking residents if they had gold to sell. “Those are the middle men that need to be dealt with,” the businessman said.

Meanwhile, manager of a jewellery store Caribbean Gems, Vijay Tewani, gave the assurance that those who ran legitimate businesses ran a “tight ship”.

“We always asked where they bring jewellery from, where they buy it from. We always have a form they have to fill out. They have to give their identification such as passport,” Tewani explained.

Those who had “hot merchandise” never returned with the required forms of identification, resulting in the jewellery store closing down its cash for gold business due to a poor response.

However, another businessman involved in the cash for gold trade expressed surprise at the lawman’s statements noting that the records at his store were checked often by police, and were even used to track down thieves. Click here to receive free news bulletins via email from Caribbean360. (View sample)