HB2534 S GOV AM #1

STEWART 7965

    The Committee on Government Organization moved to amend the bill by striking out everything after the enacting section and inserting in lieu thereof the following:

ARTICLE 26. PAWNBROKERS.

§47-26-1. Definitions.

    (a) "Pawnbroker" means any person, partnership, association or corporation advancing money in a pawn transaction in exchange for collateral in the form of the property of the pledgor. Pawnbroker does not mean any bank which is regulated by the West Virginia Division of Financial Institutions; the Comptroller of the Currency of the United States; the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System or any other federal or state authority; and all affiliates thereof and any bank or savings and loan association whose deposits or accounts are eligible for insurance by the Bank Insurance Fund or the Savings Association Insurance Fund or other fund administered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation all affiliates thereof, any state or federally chartered credit union, and any finance company subject to licensing and regulation by the West Virginia Division of Financial Institutions.

    (b) "Pawn transaction" means a transaction between a pawnbroker and a pledgor where the pledgor’s property is placed in the possession of the pawnbroker as security for money or other valuable consideration provided by the pawnbroker to the pledgor on the condition that the pledgor may pay a pawn charge and redeem his or her property within a predetermined time frame. Pawn transactions do not include those transactions where securities, titles or printed evidence of indebtedness are used as security for the transaction.

    (c) "Pledgor" means a person who delivers his or her property into the possession of a pawnbroker in exchange for money or other valuable consideration.

    (d) “Sales transaction” means a transaction between a pawnbroker and a person where the pawnbroker sells tangible property to the person for valuable consideration or the person sells tangible property to a pawnbroker for valuable consideration.

    (e) “Transaction” means both a sales transaction and a pawn transaction.

§47-26-2. Sales and Pawn Transaction Records.

    (a) All pawnbrokers shall make and maintain a transaction report for all sales transactions and pawn transactions, except for refinance pawn transactions or merchandise bought from a manufacturer or wholesaler with an established place of business. The transaction report shall include, at a minimum, the following information:

    (1) The date of the transaction;

    (2) The name of the seller or pledgor;

    (3) The name of the purchaser;

    (4) The name of the clerk who handled the transaction;

    (5) The corresponding sale or pawn ticket number;

    (6) The terms of the transaction;

    (7) A copy of the photo identification of the purchaser, seller or pledgor and type of identification: Provided, That the copy of the photo identification shall be valid and updated yearly; and

    (8) A detailed description of the property.

    (b)For purposes of meeting the requirements of subsection (a) of this section, a detailed description of the property shall include the following information:

    (1)For transactions involving firearms, at a minimum, the brand, model, caliber, type, and serial number;

    (2) For transactions involving precious metals, the type of precious metal presented, the carat weight, whether it is made of white gold, yellow gold or other precious metals, and descriptive information of the stones, shape, cut, imperfections, and other such information which is sufficient to describe the precious metal: Provided, That the pawnbroker must also comply with the provisions of section fifty-one, article three, chapter sixty-one;

    (3) For transactions involving CDs, the title and artist;

    (4) For transactions involving DVDs, the title of the film;

    (5) For transactions involving other types of articles and property, the type of article, brand, model and serial number on the article, or any other such identifying information or description so that the article may be specifically identified.

    (c) The seller or pledgor shall affirm ownership of the items subject to the transaction by signing the transaction statement and either the bill of sale or the pawn ticket at the time of the transaction.

    (d) The pawnbroker shall maintain the original of all transaction statements for a minimum of three years, and shall make the original transactions statements available for inspection by law enforcement officers and law enforcement agencies upon request during the posted hours of operation of the pawnbroker’s business.

    (e) On the first day of each month, the pawnbroker shall make the following available to the law enforcement agency that has jurisdiction where the pawn shop is located:

    (1) A copy of all transaction statements for the preceding month; or

    (2) A summary transaction report which is sufficient to identify the transactions performed for that month, and the description of the articles the pawnbroker received and sold during the preceding month.

    (f) The information required to be collected pursuant to this section is confidential, is not public record, and should only be disclosed as provided in this section or otherwise provided by law: Provided, That the confidential nature of this information in no way impedes the pawnbroker’s duty to accurately collect and timely provide the information to law enforcement.

§47-26-3. Penalties.

    (a) A seller or pledgor who falsely affirms ownership in a transaction with a pawnbroker is guilty of obtaining money, property and services by false pretenses and subject to the penalties of section twenty-four, article three, chapter sixty-one of this Code.

    (b) A pawnbroker who violates the provisions of this article is guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be fined not less than $100 and not more than $200 for each offense.

§47-26-4. Retention of records.

    A pawnbroker shall maintain in either paper or electronic copies of transaction records and signed ownership statements from each seller and pledgor for a period of not less than three years.

§47-26-5. County and municipal regulation of pawnbrokers.

    This article may not be construed to prohibit or otherwise limit any county or municipality of this state from adopting an ordinance, to the extent that the ordinance does not conflict or create lesser requirements than this article or any other provision of this code, establishing additional requirements of pawnbrokers within its jurisdiction. Pawnbrokers located in a county or municipality in which an ordinance establishes reporting requirements to local law-enforcement officials are not required to provide duplicate information to other law-enforcement officials pursuant to section three of this article.