If you want to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gold coins from the Royal Canadian Mint, it’s not that hard really.
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He hid the precious metal up his bum.
After a trial that concluded in Ottawa on Tuesday, Lawrence faced charges of “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.
The teller became suspicious due to the number of Ottawa Gold Buyers checks Lawrence had deposited into his account, as well as his requests to transfer the money overseas. She then noticed he worked at the Mint, and her suspicion intensified. [Lawrence’s lawyer] implied there were many ways Lawrence could have legitimately obtained the gold – he could have bought the coins, for instance – and said he made no efforts to be devious with the gold buyers or the bank.
The Royal Canadian Mint was also notified, prompting an investigation. They found a tub of the stuff in his work locker, and while it is certainly his natural right to possess a lubricating substance, investigators did start to wonder what, exactly, he was greasing up.
The ick factor aside, the case threw an illuminating look at security measures at the Mint. Barnes described the Crown’s case as “appalling” and merely a collection of underwhelming, circumstantial evidence.
“In fact, I would submit the Mint doesn’t even know if anything is missing”, Barnes said. Finally, Barnes pointed out that the mint left gold sitting in open buckets. All told, Lawrence walked out with what’s conservatively estimated at $179,015 worth of gold coins and cookie-sized solid gold “pucks”.
However, Lawrence’s defence said the prosecutors had not proved Lawrence’s gold came from the mint, and indeed pointed out that the facility was unable to establish whether it was actually short of gold. Nor had the Royal Canadian Mint reported any missing nuggets.
Gary Barnes has noted that prosecutors had not entered any definitive proof that Lawrence actually smuggled gold from the mint in his rectum, that it is only a theory, that he made no effort to hide his gold transactions, and that there were legitimate ways the gold pucks could have come to be in his possession.
Lawrence, who has since been terminated, was an operator in the refinery section.
The great mystery that went unanswered at trial, however, was this: How did the gold get out of the mint? The court was also told that Lawrence set off the metal detectors in the mint’s secure area more than anyone else, except employees with medical implants. Each time that happened, he was given a manual search with a hand-held wand.
“We do have compelling evidence”, countered Crown attorney David Friesen, of someone “secreting (gold) on his person and taking it out of the Mint”.
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Ontario Court of Justice judge Peter Doody will deliver a decision by November 9.
