ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, April 20, 1997 TAG: 9704210008
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE HUDSON THE ROANOKE TIMES
We have bigger problems, some commonwealth attorneys and police officials say.
A consumer group is calling for local prosecutors around Virginia to investigate pawnshops to see whether they're violating the legal limits on loan charges.
Commonwealth's attorneys in Roanoke and Roanoke County say they'll prosecute the case if a customer goes to a magistrate and swears out a criminal warrant against a pawnbroker.
But they don't see pawnshop charges as an important issue for local law enforcement.
However, a spokesman for Virginia Attorney General Jim Gilmore said his office talked last week with at least a half-dozen prosecutors around the state about pawnshop rates.
``Some of them are calling us and saying: `We want to look at this,''' spokesman Don Harrison said. He said the office has also contacted others to forward consumer complaints about overcharges.
The Virginia Citizens Consumer Council, an independent advocacy group, has written to prosecutors citing a survey of pawn rates published last month by The Roanoke Times.
Most of the 31 pawnbrokers checked by the newspaper appeared to be charging two to four times the legal interest rates. Some were collecting annual rates as high as 240 percent.
The consumer group's vice president, David Rubinstein, said the legal limits - which range from annual rates of 60 percent to 120 percent, depending on the size of the loan - are already high, and there's no excuse for charging more.
In the Roanoke Valley, some pawnbrokers acknowledged they had been breaking the law and said they would start obeying it. Others said they believed their charges were legal, or that they couldn't stay in business charging what the law allows.
Under Virginia law, violating the ceiling on pawn-loan interest is a misdemeanor that carries a $250 fine.
Roanoke Commonwealth's Attorney Donald Caldwell said pawnshop overcharges might be better handled at the state level. On the local level, he said, it's up to police to investigate.
He can ask them to look into something, but "I'm not going to the police and say: Make this a priority. Because I don't think it can be a priority based on the resources the police department has."
Acting Roanoke Police Chief J.L. Viar said his department is "studying this situation to see what involvement we need to have - if any."
Roanoke County Commonwealth's Attorney Skip Burkart said he's received one recent complaint from a pawn customer, and he told the customer his office would prosecute the case if the customer swore out a warrant.
But Burkart said that "considering I have five murder cases working, I can't honestly say pawnshops are a priority."
Rubinstein, the consumer council's vice president, said he won't be surprised if many commonwealth's attorneys take a hands-off approach to enforcing the pawn law. His group wanted to "raise their consciousness - so they know that this may be a problem in their communities, and when complaints are brought they take them seriously."
The attorney general's office filed a civil suit in February accusing City Pawn Shop in Roanoke of gouging customers on interest and fees. The pawnshop settled the case by giving refunds.
At least one local prosecutor's office has already taken an active role in making sure pawnshops follow the law. The Richmond commonwealth's attorney's office held a meeting last month to let pawnbrokers know what they can and can't charge.
Henry Woodward, who directs the Roanoke Valley Legal Aid Society, said pawnshop customers are often "very financially vulnerable," so they may be reluctant to swear out a warrant and possibly "cut off the few sources of credit they have."
But he said the costs of illegal pawn rates are high when you add up all the money involved.
"It's clearly a form of theft that's comparable to shoplifting," he said.
"It may seem no big thing if somebody lifts a tube of toothpaste. But if it adds up to tens of thousands of dollars for a business in a year, then they're going to want to take prosecution seriously and the commonwealth is probably going to back them up."
LENGTH: Medium: 86 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Chart by RT: Virginia pawn law. KEYWORDS: MGRby CNB