Pawnbrokers Act, 1964

Owners and pawners of pledges not having pawn-tickets.

28.—(1) Any person who—

(a) claims to be the owner of a pledge but does not hold the pawn-ticket, or

(b) claims to be entitled to hold a pawn-ticket and alleges that it has been lost, mislaid, destroyed or stolen or taken from him by fraud,

may, on payment of the fee prescribed in Part V of the Fifth Schedule, request the pawnbroker to supply to him the appropriate form of statutory declaration set out in the Sixth Schedule.

(2) Where the person returns to the pawnbroker the form of statutory declaration duly completed within three days (excluding any day on which the pawnbroker is prohibited from carrying on business) after the form was supplied to him, he shall, as between himself and the pawnbroker, have the same rights and remedies in respect of the pledge as if he had produced the pawn-ticket.

(3) The pawnbroker is hereby indemnified—

(a) for refusing to deliver the pledge to any other person until the said three days have expired,

(b) for the delivering up of the pledge to the person, unless he had actual or constructive notice that the statutory declaration was false in any material particular, and

(c) for failing to deliver the pledge to the person immediately upon the return of the form of statutory declaration, where the failure is due to the difficulty of identifying the pledge by reason of the pledge number not being known.

(4) A pawnbroker who fails to comply with a request under subsection (1) of this section shall be guilty of an offence.