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cubby

Live Long and Prosper
Bold Member!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ed-140000-worth-of-gold-in-his-butt/#comments

The theft of about $140,000 worth of gold ($180,000 in Canadian dollars) came from within the Royal Canadian Mint, investigators said Tuesday. Leston Lawrence, a 35-year-old employee of the government mint in Ottawa, has been accused of foiling the facility’s high security through a back-end exploit:

Lawrence smuggled out gold nuggets inside his rectum, prosecutors alleged.

After a trial that concluded in Ottawa on Tuesday, Lawrence faced “a number of smuggling-for-cash charges, including theft, laundering the proceeds of crime, possession of stolen property and breach of trust,” the Ottawa Citizen reported. Ontario Court of Justice Judge Peter Doody will deliver a decision by Nov. 9.

A suspicious bank teller raised the alarm in 2015. Lawrence sold 18 gold pucks — each a circular 7.4-ounce nugget worth about $6,800 — to an Ottawa Gold Buyers store between Nov. 27, 2014, and March 12, 2015, according to court records obtained by the Toronto Sun. Three observations tipped off the bank teller: Lawrence was a mint employee, he had an unusual number of deposits and he frequently requested overseas transactions.

Alerted by the teller’s red flags, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police pursued the tip. Adding to the body of evidence, inspectors said, were four more pucks in Lawrence’s safe-deposit box. Though the pucks were not stamped with identifying markings, the prosecution demonstrated that the nuggets matched a custom scoop the refinery uses to spoon molten gold. They also found a tub of Vaseline in his locker at work. Lawrence was fired in 2015.

In his defense, Lawrence’s lawyer argued the evidence was circumstantial. Lawrence could have purchased the gold legitimately, said Gary Barnes, the defense attorney. Nor had the Royal Canadian Mint reported any missing nuggets. Finally, Barnes pointed out that the mint left gold sitting in open buckets.

“This is the Royal Canadian Mint, your Honour, and one would think they should have the highest security measures imaginable,” the lawyer said, as reported by Ottawa Citizen columnist Kelly Egan, who had followed the case since catching wind of the charges in September 2015.

The Canadian Crown corporation mints coins and houses a refinery as well as a precious-metals storage facility. It was Lawrence’s job, as a refinery worker, to test the purity of the pucks in the buckets.

And if you look you can find several double-entendres. It's hilarious to me, Can you see those pompous bewigged officials standing around talking about butt nuggets? :hilarious::hilarious::hilarious::hilarious::hilarious::hilarious::hilarious::hilarious::hilarious:
 
Yeah i saw all those too, and what are the chances that the judge's name is Doody!:D
 
Not just Vaseline, a tub of Vaseline :hilarious:
[doublepost=1474505022,1474503878][/doublepost]
Nosy and stupid ... I would have kept my mouth shut and totally gotten in on that.

Sure buddy but I'm going to need a couple of those pucks.
He sold them at a coin and bullion shop, the teller just noticed he was moving more money than he should. I'd be giving the coin shop my attention. My coin and bullion shop will take nuggets (natural) but won't take anything else that isn't a coin or karat stamped jewelry.
 
I'd a been taking that shit home and melting it down myself....sell it off in smaller pieces, something less noticeable...and spread it around to various gold dealers.

This guy is a dumbass to the nth degree
 
Coins shops and banks better beware of butt nuggets and scrub accordingly. I can't imagine looking back...holding one of those pucks in my hand after where they came from. YUK.
 
so he's defense attourney's argument is...you can't prove he stole the gold, and even if he did, it's the mint's fault for leaving gold lying around.

I wonder how much he paid for the lawyer?
 
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-mint-gold-stolen-guilty-1.3843169
[....]
Leston Lawrence "clearly had the opportunity" to steal the gold because he often worked alone and the security cameras would not have caught him slipping gold pucks into his pocket, Justice Peter 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.

Lawrence set off the mint's walk-through metal 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, Doody found.

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

Though there was no video evidence of Lawrence stealing the gold from the mint, Lawrence was found guilty of the theft of 22 gold "pucks" worth $165,000, and laundering 18 of them via Ottawa Gold Buyers.

The pucks ranged from 192 to 264 grams in weight.

Lawrence's income was insufficient to purchase the gold he sold, the ruling detailed. He was also found guilty of possession of property obtained by crime, conveying gold out of the mint, and breach of trust by a public official.
[....]
In February 2015, Lawrence cashed two cheques from Ottawa Gold Buyers — one for $7,992.27 and another for $7,269 — at the RBC at Westgate Mall, the ruling detailed. He told the teller the cheques were from "gold nuggets" and that he wanted to transfer the money to help his parents rebuild a house in Jamaica.

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

Under RCMP surveillance, he was seen visiting the Ottawa Gold Buyers store at Westgate Mall on March 9, 2015.

The RCMP 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.

The RCMP also seized four gold pucks — roughly the diameter of golf balls with a total value of $27,278.84 — from Lawrence's bank safety deposit box on March 11, 2015, the ruling detailed.

Experts analyzed the gold pucks, and found that they matched the purity of gold at the mint. The pucks were identical in diameter to those produced at the mint, and fit the ladle used exclusively by the mint perfectly, Doody's decision detailed.
[....]
leston-lawrence-1.jpg
 
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/mint-employee-theft-gold-restitution-1.3870619
A former Royal Canadian Mint employee who smuggled $165,000 worth of gold in his rectum over several months is making efforts to pay it back, court heard Monday.
[....]
Lawrence was in Ontario court Monday for 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 made Jan. 25.
[....]
 
http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/ottawa/gold-smuggling-mint-sentencing-1.3961567
The former Royal Canadian Mint employee who apparently used his rectum to smuggle 22 solid gold "pucks" out of the secure facility in Ottawa has been given a 30-month prison sentence and must pay a fine of $190,000.
[....]
Ontario Court Justice Peter Doody ruled Thursday that Lawrence would have to serve an additional 30 months if he doesn't pay the $190,000 fine within three years of being released from prison.
[....]
During sentencing submissions last month, Crown attorney David Friesen said Lawrence should be sentenced to three years in prison, arguing that the offences took place over several months and were "not simply a one-off," and that Lawrence has not demonstrated remorse.

The Crown was also seeking a $190,000 fine.

Defence lawyer Gary Barnes, meanwhile, said his client should receive an 18-month jail sentence, arguing lax security measures made it easy for Lawrence to smuggle the gold and that he's already lost his job.

Barnes also argued Lawrence should only have to pay back $130,000 — the amount he actually made selling the 17 pucks of gold — rather than the $190,000 the 17 laundered pucks are estimated to be worth.
[....]

Yes, it's not really his fault at all. It's the Mint's fault for making it too easy. :rolleyes:
 
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