PHILIPSBURG--"Cash 4 Gold and Silver," "Radiant Gems" and "Touch of Gold" ? arguably the largest gold buyers on the island ? all have stoutly rejected suggestions that they might be knowingly involved in purchasing stolen gold.
Their denials were issued Tuesday when contacted by The Daily Herald about remarks made by head of the police Judicial Division Denise Jacobs, who told Members of Parliament in a meeting of the Central Committee of Parliament on Monday that some pawn shops and jewellers in St. Maarten (which she did not name) knowingly accepted stolen goods.
They all said they requested picture IDs before making purchases and had cameras mounted in their stores.
"Why would thieves come to us? Anyone who sells anything here has to give me a photo ID. It's like that in all pawn shops. To point the finger at us is ridiculous. There is a camera on you as soon as you walk in. Maybe there wouldn't be so many thieves if they spent more than a few days in jail. That's the reality of the situation." said the owner of Cash 4 Gold and Silver.
He also said he kept anything he bought for 90 days in case it had been stolen and that police had used his log book filled with photos of clients in the past.
He said that any time an item was stolen it usually was from a family member.
"I have had instances where a lady sold her husband's watch while he was on vacation and stuff like that, but criminals are smart. They go to informal street buyers or straight to the refinery. Police know that. I don't what they're after here. Bottom line: Don't blame me, the person you gave the permit to in order to do this, the person you're taking taxes from, when you yourselves admitted that these chain snatchers go to jail for 26 days and they're out."
The manager of Radiant Gems said, "I strongly object to those allegations. Most of what we see is broken gold, and criminals know not to come to us. You have to be 18 years old to sell the gold and we take your ID. We have cooperated with both the French and Dutch police. Both have seen our records."
A manager at Touch of Gold said that anytime a suspicious character walked in they rejected the gold and that if the gold was brand new it raised a red flag with them and they would not accept it.
Managements of all three stores were quite surprised by what had been said in Parliament attributing the robbery statistics to their stores and all stood by their claims that criminals were smarter than to go to them.
Nick Barmby The Ashes Redrow Consumer affairs Public sector cuts Wigan Athletic
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