Pawnshop firm aims to improve image

A BOSS at a pawnbrokers’ shop has set out to dispel the perception that his industry attracts “undesirables”.

Andy Pilgrim is operations director at “cash for gold”style business The Cash Monkey, which has branches in Nottingham’s Upper Parliament Street, Beeston, Mansfield, Long Eaton and Ilkeston.

Andy said: “I’ve been in this industry for nearly 30 years and public perception has improved. However, there is still an incorrect assumption from some that our industry is fraught with facilitating the undesirables and dealing in stolen goods.

“It is in fact the opposite of this, where we work closely with all authorities and police, we take identification and apply as many safeguards as possible to combat this from occurring in our businesses.”

He went on: “We continually explain and liaise with all customers.

“We are also very active on various forms of social media to get the message out there. We welcome anyone to come and see how we operate.

“We are a family-run small business that is helping the local community and the wider public with our various services.”

Andy said where there were sometimes misunderstandings over the ownership of goods, usually among relatives.

He said: “The vast majority of disputed ownership or individuals claiming the item in store is ‘stolen’ are driven by friends and family disputes. This is usually where one party supposedly hasn’t had the permission to sell or lend against the item and have then had a disagreement which has led to our business being made the injured party.

“It is very very rare that we actually have or see anything in any of our stores that has come as a result of ‘true crime’ such as burglaries or robberies.”

Cash Monkey offers several services to members of the public, where staff can buy their pre-owned items, lend them money against their items, sell travel money and sell various new and preowned goods at discount prices, ranging from games and consoles to jewellery and luxury watches.