A husband and wife duo has been arrested after allegedly buying large quantities of stolen property in Vancouver and reselling the items.

On March 1, the Vancouver Police anti fencing unit seized $200,000 worth of stolen goods from a home on East 20th Avenue near Fraser Street.

The pair, aged 74 and 69, is alleged to have been working as what police are calling a "predatory fence," purchasing items from drugs addicts who steal to support their habit. Police say goods were also bought from organized retail crime groups.

The VPD says it seized numerous stolen goods including jeans, jackets and cosmetics. (Frederic Gagnon/CBC)

Items such as toothbrushes, vitamins, clothing, batteries, coffee, liquor, even underwear have been resold locally or sent overseas and distributed to small retailers.

Inspector Earl Andersen believes people involved in fencing schemes are simply taking advantage of drug addicts.

"They`re paying 10 cents on the dollar, some are providing shopping lists saying we want you to go out and steal these products for us," he explained.

VPD Inspector Earl Andersen says purchasing stolen goods is a crime and if the price seems too good to be true, it probably is. (Frederic Gagnon/CBC)

Andersen says purchasing stolen items as a consumer is also a crime and if the price seems too good to be true, it probably is.

"If we can go after the key players, those are the people we want to target but there's also a marketing strategy as far as trying to reduce the number of individuals who are willing to go out there and fuel this underground economy by buying stolen property. So those are also individuals we are going to target through enforcement but also education."

The husband and wife, who can't be named until they are charged, are well known to police but neither has a criminal record.

The VPD says it believes the alleged fencing system has been in operation for several years.