Featured in the December print issue of Professional Security is a security seminar for jewellery shopkeepers, run by the National Association of Goldsmiths (NAG). Now a voluntary Gold Standard for the sale and purchase of second-hand precious metals has taken on a new lease of life as the scheme has been adopted by Hertfordshire Police.
This scheme, set up by Surrey Police with the National Association of Goldsmiths (NAG), the British Jewellers Association (BJA), and the National Pawnbrokers Association (NPA) aims to tackle a recent spate of high-value metal thefts.
Organisers seek to encourage responsible trading by introducing a number of verification, evaluation and best practice protocols, to provide the retailer and customer with a sense of added security while acting as a deterrent to offenders trying to re-enter stolen property into the market. Gold Standard accredited shops will be required to formally record every transaction, including details of the customer’s identity, and check the items for forensic property marking.
On taking on the scheme Detective Inspector Paul Doran, from Hertfordshire Police’s crime reduction unit, said: “When the price of gold is high, we can see a rise in burglaries where gold and jewellery may be targeted. The Gold Standard aims to reduce the opportunity to sell stolen precious metal jewellery, including Asian gold, in quick anonymous sales. If there’s no market for thieves to profit from, there’s no need for the crime.”
“By working with the jewellery and pawnbroking trade, we will attempt to prevent them from becoming inadvertent handlers of stolen property whilst also reinforcing that should they break the law, we will fully investigate and prosecute those found to be handling stolen goods.”
The initiative has support from Assistant Chief Constable Alison Roome-Gifford and the ACPO Burglary Working Group, the Home Office, the Trading Standards Institute and the National Measurement Office. This gold standard comes at a time when the jewellery industry has been taking a look at its approach to security and how it can become a harder target for thieves. It also comes shortly after Michael Hoare and Neil McFarlane were selected for the Professional Jeweller Hot 100 for their work with the SaferGems initiative.
NAG CEO Michael Hoare, pictured, said: “we’re really pleased to see this initiative is expanding beyond its original boundaries and that other police forces are adopting the scheme. the NAG’s attack on crime is two-pronged – the first is the sharing of intelligence through SaferGems and the second is the prevention of stolen goods re-entering the supply chain through the Gold Standard. Working in tandem these two measures should be pivotal in combatting crime against the jewellery industry. It’s great to receive this news just a month to the day since the NAG’s first Retail Security Conference as it really shows that the industry is starting to work with police in taking steps to strengthen its defences.”
For more information on the Gold Standard, or the revised guidance notes for jewellers – contact the NAG on 0207 613 4445 or [email protected]
