Golden balls!

So staff at a Hampshire pawnbrokers were stunned to be offered one as security for a loan.

It is the star of a glittering haul of 11 Rolexes as well as diamond and sapphire rings handed over to Eastleigh’s Pawnbroker Ltd as the credit crunch starts to bite the county’s more affluent residents.

Boasting seven-carat diamonds and white gold, the watch is a favourite with the likes of Chelsea’s Didier Drogba and comes in its own wooden presentation box. Although the high-earning Blues hitman is unlikely to be darkening the doorways of a pawnshop anytime soon, plenty of others who have suddenly found money a bit tight are venturing in for the first time, according to Daniel Grimes, director of Pawnbroker Ltd.

“Our loan book – what we pay people, is going up and the quality of stuff is going up too,” he said.

“It is the higher earning people that are finding themselves in difficulty.

People who have been living the image but are now finding themselves in trouble because everything is on finance.

“I am surprised by the quality of the goods we are seeing. In years before we would have taken a Rolex occasionally but it’s unheard of to have four or five of them in the safe at one time.”

Mr Grimes says pawnbroking’s seedy image is an unfair one.

“The stigma of going to a pawnbroker is being washed away by necessity.

“We had a local chap who came in who was really nervous and really worried. He had a very expensive diamond ring and he had an £800 mortgage bill to pay.

You could see he was visibly anxious, nervous and ashamed to come in. We told him ‘it’s not just you, it’s everybody.’ He came and got his ring back.”

“Another type of customer is this builder who has two 18 carat Rolexes he uses to finance his jobs. When he’s a bit short he comes in and we hand him the money and two weeks later he gets paid and comes back.

“We see married ladies needing to pay their credit card bills because they are up to the limit and their bills are too high. People who are struggling to pay their mortgage and they don’t want a bad credit rating.”

Cash Converters, which is one of the region’s biggest pawnbroking businesses with five shops in Hampshire, including two in Southampton, was also seeing the new type of customer.

The firm’s Mark Lemmon said: “What is happening in Hampshire is reflective of what’s happening nationally. More people are considering our services who perhaps in the past wouldn’t have found us first choice.

“Our sales are still doing well because people are disposing of items that they no longer need to realise cash. That’s so much better than borrowing money”

Des Milligan, chief executive of the National Pawnbrokers’ Association, with 550 members, said the average loan amount was £120 with average monthly interest rates between four and eight per cent.

Most visitors to pawnbrokers are repeat customers and in 88 per cent of cases people are reunited with their possessions after paying off the loans and interest.

Said Mr Milligan: “The last thing a pawnbroker wants to do is to sell somebody’s jewellery which can be quite upsetting. It is more in the pawnbroker’s interests to have repeat transactions with the same item.”

He said that the majority of people going to pawnbrokers were not particularly well off, or on state benefits, but there was increasing custom from small business owners experiencing cash flow problems.

Staff at both Southampton or Winchester Citizens Advice Bureau said they had not come across anyone who had got into financial difficulty through pawnbroking or even sought advice about the process.

Jenny Meadows, manager at Winchester CAB said anyone with cash flow problems should contact their nearest CAB.

“There are different options depending upon a person’s income. If they are on benefits they may be entitled to a crisis loan. Vouchers are also available from Winchester’s Basics Bank for free food and clothing to eligible people. We can talk through any problems, look at your finances and come up with a suitable strategy.”