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Worker Trying to Reimburse $165k of Gold Smuggled From Mint in His Rectum

© Sputnik / Iliya Pitalev / Go to the mediabankA gold bar from the collection of the Russian State Precious Metals and Gemstones Collection Fund under the Finance Ministry. (File)
A gold bar from the collection of the Russian State Precious Metals and Gemstones Collection Fund under the Finance Ministry. (File) - Sputnik International
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A sentencing hearing was postponed for a former Royal Canadian Mint employee who smuggled $165,000 worth of gold in his rectum after court found he was trying to pay the money back.

Earlier this month 38-year-old Leston Lawrence was found guilty of smuggling 22 gold pucks from the Ottawa mint in his rectum and trading most of them for cash through Ottawa Gold Buyers store.

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On Monday Ontario court heard that Lawrence was trying to compensate the mint for the value of stolen gold. In less than a month, on December 19, he is expected to present a progress report in court on attempts to return the money.

The convict's job at the mint was to purify gold until it was 99.5 per cent pure and then scoop some of the metal out with a ladle to examine its purity. All the pucks were supposed to be returned into the vat of molten gold after probe.

According to court documents, Lawrence was recorded setting off Royal Canadian Mint metal detectors 28 times in four months. Each time after they signaled, the mint's security guards checked Lawrence again using less sensitive handheld detectors but they didn't detect metal in body cavities.

After smuggling the gold, Lawrence sold it at a cash-for-gold store in an Ottawa mall and then cashed the checks at a nearby bank. He got caught when a bank's teller found his transactions suspicious and alerted the RCMP.

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Lawrence was put under surveillance and got caught selling a 24-karat gold puck to the Ottawa Gold Buyers for almost $8,000. Experts found that the pucks he sold matched the purity of gold at the mint and perfectly fit its exclusive ladle.

According to the documents, each gold puck weighed from 192 to 264 grams and had the diameter of golf balls. After the incident the Mint reportedly installed additional high-definition security cameras and upgraded its security checkpoint system.

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