Professur
Team Owner
http://cnews.canoe.com/CNEWS/Canada/2017/02/02/22701421.html
But from the highlight reel
So, was that in the original job description? How do you put this on a resume afterwards? Job or Personal skills? How much must it suck for his co-workers? You know the next promotion is his.
OTTAWA - The Royal Canadian Mint worker convicted of smuggling $165,000 in gold nuggets in his rectum — an inside job mocked around the world — was sentenced to 30 months in prison this morning.
Leston Lawrence, 35, made only a brief statement before a ruling from Ontario Justice Peter Doody.
“I’d just like to say thank you, sir, and that’s it. No further comment.”
After which, his puffy jacket still done up, he sat down in the front row.
Lawrence was also ordered to repay $190,000, the true market value of the precious metal, which he sold at a discount.
Lawrence, an operator in the Mint’s refinery section on Sussex Drive, was convicted Nov. 9 of stealing 22 gold “pucks” during a three-month period that began in December 2014, then reselling them and spending the proceeds.
Though the method of escape was never proven, the Mint was satisfied Lawrence must have hidden the pucks — about the diameter of a golf gall — in his rectum as he exited the secure area after his shift.
The theory was bolstered by the discovery of vaseline and latex gloves in his personal locker and the fact he set off an archway metal detector 28 times in 41 days, though no gold was ever found on his person.
The Mint was so convinced this was the heist method that it had a security officer duplicate the crime. During the test, the first detector was set off but not the second, done with a hand-held device.
The details of the theft were so unusual that it was reported in media around the world, even leading to a late-night musical riff — “Goldsphincter” as Goldfinger — by comedian Stephen Colbert.
The Crown had been seeking a prison term of three years while the defence thought 18 months was appropriate for the first-time offender.
Court was told that Lawrence was arranging to have a home built in Jamaica and had sent about $35,000 to a contractor in the Caribbean. He had also invested about $34,000 in a commercial fishing boat in Florida.
Defence lawyer Gary Barnes had argued his client was attempting to make financial restitution for the thefts and money laundering. Though he put his house on the market, by the time his sentencing hearing was completed in January, not a penny had been repaid.
If not for Lawrence’s brazen approach to fencing the gold, he might have eluded detection.
Court heard he sold 18 of the pucks to Ottawa Gold Buyers in the Westgate Shopping Centre, for about $8,000 each. He would then deposit the cheques at the Royal Bank in the same mall.
An alert teller — making an especially large deposit in February 2015 — noticed on his account profile that he was a Mint employee. She alerted bank security and the RCMP were called.
He was put under surveillance and four stolen pucks were eventually recovered in his safety deposit box.
The Crown was able to show the pucks were exactly the same size and shape as those produced in a refinery process that used a custom-made dipping spoon to test for purity.
But from the highlight reel
The Mint was so convinced this was the heist method that it had a security officer duplicate the crime. During the test, the first detector was set off but not the second, done with a hand-held device.
So, was that in the original job description? How do you put this on a resume afterwards? Job or Personal skills? How much must it suck for his co-workers? You know the next promotion is his.
