Sentencing delayed for mint employee who smuggled gold in his rectum

A former Royal Canadian Mint employee who smuggled $190,000 worth of gold in his rectum over several months is making efforts to pay it back, court heard Monday.

In November, 35-year-oldLestonLawrence was found guilty of stealing 22 solid gold "pucks" from the mint on Sussex Drive in Ottawa,and of laundering 17of them through Ottawa Gold Buyers (the cheque for an18thpuck never cleared because thatpuckwas seized by police).

The weight of the launderedpucks ranged from 192 to 264 grams apieceand were soldfor between $6,800 and $9,500 each in 2014 and 2015.

Lawrencemade $130,000 from the 17 pucks he sold, which he sent abroad to build a house in Jamaica and buy a boat in Florida, among other transactions.

It's estimated that if he had managed to sellall 22 pucks through Ottawa Gold Buyers, Lawrencewould have made about $165,000 an amount based on what he sold the 17 pucks for. But the full market value of the 22 pucks of gold isestimated to be about $190,000.

He was also found guilty of possession of property obtained by crime, conveying gold out of the mintand breach of trust by a public official.

Lawrence was in Ontario court Mondayfor what was originally scheduled to be a sentencing hearing, but court heard that Lawrence is trying to reimburse the mint for the value of the gold he stole.

His next court date is now scheduled for Dec. 19 for a progress report on his attempts at restitution. Sentencing submissions are now expected to be madeJan. 25.

As Lawrence left the Ottawa courthouse Mondaysurrounded by television cameras, he told reporters he had no comment.

Worked at mint from 2008 to 2015

While announcing the guilty verdict earlier this month, Ontario Court Justice Peter Doody said Lawrence set off the mint's walk-throughmetal detectors more than any other employee without a metal implant 28 times between December 2014 and March 2015,court heard.But when a secondary check with handheld detectors failed to alert guards to the gold, Lawrence was able to leave with it each time.

• Mint employee guilty of smuggling $190K of gold in rectum

The handheld detectors are less sensitive than the walk-through detectorsand do not detect metal in body cavities, Doodysaid in his ruling.

Lawrence worked at the mint from July 2008 until March 2015. His job included purifying gold jewelry, coins and bars purchased by the mint by melting it, injecting it with chlorine gas and skimming off base metal until the molten gold was 99.5 per cent pure.

Once he believed the molten gold was pure, he was to scoop some out with a ladle, letit cool and then testit for purity. He was supposed to return the pucksinto the vat of molten gold after testing.

Leston Lawrence prepares a gold puck at the mint

8 years ago

Duration 0:39

Lawrence makes a gold puck in the mint's chlorination room on Feb. 2, 2015.

In February 2015, Lawrence cashed twochequesfrom Ottawa Gold Buyers one for $7,992.27 and another for $7,269 at the RBC atWestgateMall, the ruling detailed. He told the teller thechequeswere from "gold nuggets" and that he wanted totransfer the money to help his parents rebuild a house in Jamaica.

When the teller noticed he worked at the mint, the bank notified theRCMP.

Placed under surveillance

UnderRCMPsurveillance, he was seen visiting theOttawa Gold Buyers store atWestgateMall on March 9, 2015.

Investigators found Lawrence sold a 24-karat gold puck to the store for $7,966.27, and had previously sold 17 similar pucks to the store for a grand total of $138,172.46. But Lawrence only made $130,206.19, because the final cheque for $7,966.27 never cleared.

TheRCMPalso seized four gold pucks roughly thediameter of golf balls with a total value of $27,278.84 from Lawrence's bank safe-deposit box on March 11, 2015, the ruling detailed.

Experts analyzedthe gold pucksand found that they matched the purity of gold at the mint. The pucks were identical in diameter to those produced at the mint, and perfectly fit the ladle used exclusively bythe mint, Doody's decision detailed.

Lawrence "clearly had the opportunity" to steal the gold because he often worked alone, andthe security cameras would not have caught him slipping gold pucks into his pocket, Doody ruled.

"His locker contained Vaseline and latex gloves, which could have been used to insert a puck into his rectum," he ruled, adding that there were no cameras in the locker room.