MONTREAL - In a bid to reduce the number of stolen goods for sale in Montreal Pawn shops, the city has tightened industry regulations.

Pawnshops make money by offering loans and selling merchandise. The shops often lend out money as collateral to be held against an item brought into the store. If the loan isn't paid back by an agreed-upon time, the shop places the item up for sale. 

Pawnshops were previously regulated in Montreal, but stolen goods still found their way onto their shelves and were sold online, according to Rosannie Filato, a member of Montreal's executive committee. 

"We know that there are pawn shops that are a legitimate business, and that's ok, but we really wanted to tackle the way of bypassing through online transactions and through transactions that weren't made through the store," she explained.

The shops are often popular with thieves in search of fast cash.

The new rules state that pawnshops must hold on to items for at least 30 days. Previously, they could be sold after 15. Furthermore, all goods sold inside the store must now be registered online, and jewelry items will need to be photographed. 

Fines for non-compliance have increased also. A first offence can cost up to $1000 dollars.

"It's going to help the citizen find where the good was, and the SPVM can investigate more quickly," Filato stressed. 

Petros Sakaris runs a pawn shop on Sherbrooke St. He said part of his day is spent sending information to police. 

"You have to take pictures of the jewelry now as it is every night we have to take pictures of every item we buy or loan against, and we send it into the police," the pawnshop owner said. "If there's a problem, they get back to us, and they say put this item aside."

He added that the SPVM rarely flagged items at his store. 

The new rules target a specific group of pawnshops, he suspected. 

"For the smaller operators which I call the fly-by-nighters it could be bad for them and for the bigger establishments it might be beneficial for them," he said.  

With files from CTV Montreal's Matt Grillo