General restrictions on pownbroke•s.—A pawnbroker also commits an offence if he does any of the following things :—(1) Takes an article in pawn from any person appearing to be under the age of twelve years or to be intoxicated; (2) Purchases or takes in paw 0 or exchange a pawn-ticket issued by another pawnbroker ; (3) Employs any servant or apprentice or other person under the age of sixteen years to take pledges in pawn ; (4) Carries on the business of a pawnbroker on Sunday, Good Friday, or Christmas Day, or a day appointed for public fast, humiliation, or thanksgiving ; (5) Under any pretence purchases, except at public auction, any pledge while in pawn with him ; (6) Suffers any pledge while in pawn with him to be re deemed with a view to his purchasing it ; (7) Makes any contract or agree ment with any person pawning or offering to pawn any article, or with the owner thereof, for the purchase, sale, or disposition thereof within the time of redemption ; (8) Sells or otherwise disposes of any pledge pawned with him except at such time and in such manner as authorised by the Act.
Unktrcjid and taking in one who knowingly and designedly paw us with a pawnbroker anything the property of another person, the pawner not being employed or authorised by the owner to pawn it, is guilty of an offence ; on conviction thereof in a Court of summary jurisdiction he renders himself liable to forfeit any sum not exceeding £.5, and in addition thereto any sum not exceeding the full value of the pledge as a-certained by the Court. These forfeitures when recovered arc applied towards making satisfaction thereout to the party injured, and dell-aying the costs of prosecu tion, as the Court directs ; but if the party injured declines to accept such satisfaction and costs, or if there is any surplus of the forfeitures, then the for feitures or surplus (as the case may be) will be applied for the use of the poor.
A person is guilty of an offence if lie does any of the following things: (1) Offers to a pawnbroker an article by nay of pawn, being unable or refusing to give a satisfactory account of the means by which he became possessed of the article ; (2) Wilfully gives false information to a pawnbroker as to whether an article offered by hint in lawn to the pawnbroker is his own property or not, or as to his name and address, or as to the name and address of the owner of the article ; (3) Not being entitled to redeem, and not having any colour of title by law to redeem, a pledge, attempts or endeavours to redeem the same. In every such case, and also in any case where, on an article being offered in pawn to a pawnbroker he reasonably suspects that it has been stolen or otherwise illegally or clandestinely obtained, the pawn broker may seize and detain the person and the article, or either of them; and he must deliver the person and the article or either of them (as the case may be) as soon as possible into the custody of a constable, who will forth with convey the person, if so detained, before a justice, to be dealt with according to law. In an action against a pawnbroker for damages for false
imprisonment, through having seized and detained an innocent person, it is a question for the judge, and not for the jury, whether he had cause to reasonably suspect that person (Howard v. Clarke). For such an innocent person to succeed in his action against the pawnbroker, it would seem that he must affirmatively prove an absence of reasonable suspicion in the mind of the pawnbroker.
The justice, on the request of the pawnbroker, may give him a certificate of the amount of the compensation reasonable for his expenses, trouble, and loss of time about the seizure, detention, and delivery. This certificate has the effect of an order of Court for the payment of the expenses of a prosecu tion ; and the amount mentioned therein will be paid as money mentioned in such an order.
A pawnbroker must not knowingly take in pawn any linen or apparel or unfinished goods or materials entrusted to any person to wash, scour, iron, mend, manufacture, work up, finish, or make up. If he does so he will be guilty of an offence against the Act, and urn be liable, on conviction thereof in a Court of summary jurisdiction, to forfeit a sum not exceeding double the amount of the loan (which forfeiture is paid to the overseers of the poor of the parish where the offence is committed for the use of the poor). And the pawnbroker will also be required to restore the pledge to its owner, in the presence of the Court, or a.s the Court directs.
If the owner of any linen, or apparel, or unfinished goods, or materials entrusted to any such persons, and unlaNI fully pawned v. ith pawnbroker, or the owner of any other article unlawfully pawned (the last-mentioned owner having on oath satisfie.d a justice that his goods have been unlawfully obtained or taken from him), ina.kes out on oath before a justice that there is good cause to suspect that a pawnbroker has taken in pawn the linen, apparel, goods, materials, or other article, without the privity or authority of the owner, and makes appear to the satisfaction of the justice probable grounds for such suspicion, the justice may issue his warrant for searching, within the hours of business, the shop of the pawnbroker. And should the pawnbroker, on request by a constable authorised by the warrant, refuse to open the shop and permit it to be searched, a constable may break it open within the hours of business and search therein for the linen, apparel, goods, materials, or other article, doing no wilful damage ; and if any pawnbroker or other person opposes or hinders the search, lie will be guilty of an offence. And if any such linen, apparel, goods, materials, or other article, is or are then found, and the property of the owner thereof is made out to the satisfaction of a Court of summary jurisdiction, the Court will cause it to be forthwith restored to its owner.