My understanding is that here, if a pawn broker follows the rules laid down in determining ownership of a good he is purchasing, it cannot be seized from him by the rightful owner if it is proven to be stolen. It applies to the pawn industry and does not apply to individuals. I believe this is still the law as I never heard it was changed but most people are unaware of this and surprised by it. I learned this from a 7.30 Report in the 1990s that focused on the growth of larger chain pawn shops. Pawn broker who fence stolen goods and do not take all care in determining rightful ownership of purchased goods would lose both the goods and the license to practice. It is not a good analogy for the ANZ Opes debacle but then again neither are the home mortgage ones either. I note several posters think I am a lackey for ANZ. I ceased banking with them in the 80's over a unfair bank charge so they are no friends of mine. The point of my original post was to say that they seem to be in a strong position legally speaking. The fault here lies seems to lie with Opes management but they might prove hard to sue.
