Bill Text: WV SB314 | 2021 | Regular Session | Comm Sub
Bill Title: Regulating pawnbrokers
Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill
Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2021-04-10 - On 2nd reading, House Calendar [SB314 Detail]
Download: West_Virginia-2021-SB314-Comm_Sub.html
WEST virginia legislature
2021 regular session
Committee Substitute
for
Senate Bill 314
By Senators Jeffries, Phillips, Weld, and Lindsay
[Originating in the Committee on the Judiciary; reported on March 8, 2021]
A BILL to amend and reenact §47-26-1 and §47-26-3 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended; and to amend said code by adding thereto a new section, designated §47-26-2a, all relating generally to the regulation of pawnbrokers; defining terms; prohibiting pawnbrokers from doing business with certain persons; prohibiting pawnbrokers from purchasing certain items or transacting in certain items; creating misdemeanor offenses for certain acts; and increasing the penalties for existing criminal offenses related to pawnbrokers.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
ARTICLE 26. PAWNBROKERS.
§47-26-1. Definitions.
“General-use prepaid gift card” means a card, code, or other device that is issued on a prepaid basis for a specified amount which may or may not be increased or reloaded in exchange for payment and which is redeemable upon presentation at multiple unaffiliated merchants for goods or services or usable at an automated teller machine.
“Gift certificate” means a card, code, or other device that is issued on a prepaid basis in a specific amount that may not be increased or reloaded in exchange for payment and is redeemable upon presentation to a single merchant or an affiliated group of merchants for goods or services.
(a) “Pawnbroker” means any person, partnership,
association, corporation, or employee thereof advancing money in a pawn
transaction in exchange for collateral in 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 and 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 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 the pledge into
the possession of a pawnbroker.
(d) “Purchase” or “purchase transaction” means the
transfer and delivering of goods by a person to a pawnbroker by acquisition for
value, consignment, or trade for other goods. This definition does not include
purchases by pawnbrokers of items not used or intended for resale, consignment,
or trade of the item to another.
“Store gift card” means a card, code, or other device that is issued on a prepaid basis in a specified amount, whether or not that amount may be increased or reloaded, either in exchange for payment or as a means of refunding money which is redeemable upon presentation at a single merchant or an affiliated group of merchants for goods and services.
§47-26-2a. Prohibited acts.
A pawnbroker may not purchase, accept in pawn, receive in trade, or exchange for goods:
(1) Articles from a minor;
(2) Articles from a person who appears to be intoxicated or under the influence of a controlled substance at the time of the transaction;
(3) Articles that the pawnbroker knows, or has reason to believe, are stolen;
(4) General-use prepaid gift cards, store gift cards, store credit, merchandise cards, gift certificates, activated phone cards, or similar items; and
(5) Property with serial numbers, personalized inscriptions or initials, or other identifying marks that the pawnbroker knows, or has reason to believe, have been intentionally altered or rendered illegible.
§47-26-3. Penalties; pawnbroker.
(a) A pawnbroker who violates the provisions of this
article is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall
be fined not less than $100 $250 nor more than $200 $1,000
for each offense.
(b) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (a) of this section, any person convicted of a third violation of §47-26-2 or §47-26-2a of this code where the offenses occurred within a three-year period is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not less than $1,000 nor more than $3,000 or confined in jail for not more than six months or both fined and confined.
