THE owner of a new pawn shop in Dublin city centre said hard-pressed members of the public are now pawning their most prized possessions to pay their electricity bill and rent.

The Quick Cash Today pawn shop, set up two months ago at Talbot Street by Ruslan Rogacevskis from Russia, is seeing an increase in the number of people selling their goods for cash because of the economic downturn.

"I have just spoken with a customer who brought in his laptop to pawn because he could not pay his rent which was due. Another customer last week told me how she is being threatened with having her ESB cut off as she has not paid her bill, so she brought in a number of possessions to pawn," said Rogacevskis.

He also said out-of-pocket Dublin residents are selling their most valuable possessions; the shop now has three guitars and several laptops, phones, cameras and other electrical devices that have not been reclaimed. The shop owner charges 20% interest on pawned items and says most people want to come back and reclaim their goods if they can get the money within 28 days.

"A lot of people are coming in to get money in a hurry when they are stuck. They do want to get their possessions back, though, which is not always possible unfortunately. Then we have people coming in who know they can get really good -value products."

Most items cost €40 to €160 and are electronic, such as hair straighteners, games consoles and music systems.

"We are trying to help people, at the end of the day. That is how we see it in here. They are in difficult times and we can offer money to them and, after a certain time elapses, good value to other people as well," said Rogacevskis.