Another bank employee alerted authorities to the theft.
An employee of the Royal Canadian Mint has been accused of smuggling about $140,000 worth of gold from within the facility beating all security measures, reported Ottawa Citizen.
The case against 35-year-old Leston Lawrence concluded on Tuesday. Justice Peter Doody will pronounce the verdict on November 9.
Though the prosecutors argued that the accused carried the gold nuggets inside his rectum, there was no prima facie evidence to prove the argument.
Surprisingly, it was not the Mint officials, but a bank employee who alerted the police about the suspicious transactions of Lawrence that unfolded the crime.
Lawrence used to smuggle the gold nuggets that weighed about 210 grams frequently and sold the same to Ottawa Gold Buyers in the Westgate Shopping Centre on Carling Avenue for which he received checks in $5200 range.
He deposited the checksBank employee in the Royal Bank in the same mall. An employee of the bank became suspicious as Lawrence frequently deposited the cheques of Ottawa Gold Buyers and requested to send money overseas. She realized that Lawrence was a Mint employee after checking his profile and alerted the police.
According to the prosecution, Lawrence smuggled out frequently inside his rectum. He managed to foil the security check by setting off the metal detector frequently than many other employees who have medical implants in their body.
Whenever Lawrence set off the metal detector, a manual search was carried out by the security staff using a hand-held wand. But, the wand failed to find out the gold as it was concealed inside his bum.
According to the Toronto Sun, Lawrence smuggled and sold 18 gold pucks weighing 210 grams between November 27, 2014, and March 12, 2015.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police had found four more pucks in the safe-deposit box of the accused when they conducted a search at Mint as part of the investigation. The pucks didn’t have identifying markings, but it matched the custom scoop that Mint used to convey the molten gold. A tub of Vaseline was also found in his box.
As an operator in the refinery section, it was the duty of Lawrence to test the purity of pucks in the buckets. He was terminated after the police arrested him.
Gary Barnes, the lawyer of Lawrence argued in the court that the evidence produced by the prosecution were only circumstantial. He said the Mint hasn’t reported any missing of gold nuggets and the accused could have purchased the nuggets legally.
“This is the Royal Canadian Mint, your Honor, and one would think they should have the highest security measures imaginable,” Barnes was quoted as saying by the Ottawa Citizen.
Lawrence faces several charges such as a number of smuggling-for-cash charges, including theft, laundering the proceeds of crime, possession of stolen property and breach of trust.