Fence (criminal) - Legal Aspects

Legal Aspects

Fencing is illegal almost everywhere, usually under a similar rationale as in the United States, where receipt of stolen property is a crime in every state, as well as a federal crime if the property crossed a state line. Occasionally federal agents will temporarily set up a false fence sting operation. "Many organized crime members and associates are involved in the fencing of stolen property" (Pennsylvania Crime Commission, 1991). "The legal requirements for demonstrating that fencing has occurred are complex. In America, as in England, there are three elements to the crime: (1) The property must have been stolen; (2) the property must have been received or concealed (though the fence may not have actually seen or touched it); (3) the receiver must have accepted it with knowledge that it was stolen."

Pawnbrokers have often been associated with fencing, though in many jurisdictions, government identification must be shown in order to pawn an item and police regularly check pawnshops for stolen goods and repossess any stolen items. While pawnbrokers do not like this characterization of their business, police efforts have indicated that some pawnbrokers are involved in fencing. For example, in the US, the "Sarasota Police Department, Venice Police Department and North Port Police Department assisted with the undercover operation to sell gold jewelry to each business. Many were found to be in compliance. However, a number of businesses were operating under a "no questions asked" policy, making no attempt to properly document the seller information, record the items being purchased or obtain the seller's fingerprint, all of which are state requirements". Money laundering could be described as the "fencing of currency".