Police enforce laws dealing with precious metal sales

When economic times get tough some people turn to selling their belongings for extra cash.

One industry officials said that’s seeing an influx of this is precious metals.

From pawn shops to jewelry stores many of retailers are now advertising “we buy gold and silver.”

But, in order to do that legally in South Carolina there are some regulations that must be followed.

Florence Police are making sure businesses are educated on the rules.

“It’s illegal to do it if you don’t have a permit,“ said Major Carlos Raines, Florence Police Department.

Police have also recognized the new trend.

“It’s because of the economy,” Raines said. “People have a tendency to sell those items of gold and silver and that sort of thing when the economy is going to affect them in a negative.“

Since then the police department’s issued a precious metals packet with the rules and application process that any business looking to buy jewelry in S.C. must complete.

“They’re gonna have to maintain very strict records, they’re gonna have to maintain the actual property that they buy for a period of time, and at any time a law enforcement officer is curious they could check if they currently have a right to do that,“ Raines said.

If a business doesn’t have a permit to buy or isn’t following the state statue police said there will be consequences.

Those consequences could potential be fines, charges and even jail time.

Florence Police told News13 that once they feel all of the businesses have been educated on the “precious metals permit” they will be going on and enforcing this through compliance checks.

So far no one has been arrested for buying the metals without a permit.