BURGLARS will find it harder to cash in on stolen jewellery under a new Avon and Somerset police scheme.

Jewellers and pawnbrokers across North Somerset are being asked to sign up to the Gold Standard scheme, where businesses will carry out checks to verify sellers’ ages and identities.

They are also being asked to keep a record of purchased items and record transactions on CCTV, and participating businesses will display a sticker in their windows and an information poster in their shops.

A police spokesman said: “With the price of gold going up and up, we’re increasingly seeing burglars choosing jewellery over electrical items, hoping to make quick cash through anonymous sales.

“The idea behind this scheme is to make it harder for burglars to sell on what they steal and work more closely with businesses to catch suspects and return stolen property to victims.

“Signing up to the scheme also acts as a reminder to businesses that they themselves are committing crime if they buy and sell stolen property – and we will prosecute them. Equally, they stand to lose money if we end up seizing goods we believe to be stolen as part of our investigations.”