text: It was a rare but certainly interesting case of theft, and the perpetrator has now been sentenced. 
   
   An employee of the Royal Canadian Mint in Ottawa was found to have been stealing gold from the mint. 
   
   In November of last year 35-year-old Leston Lawrence was found guilty of stealing 22 gold “pucks”. 
   
   Original RCI story 2016 
   
   His job at the time was to take small samples from batches of molten gold which would then be tested for purity. He sometimes worked alone and the process meant periods out of sight of the only security camera in the room. 
   
   He managed to sell 17 of the pucks for a total of about $130,000. He was caught, not by the mint, but through an alert bank employee where he cashed the cheques. 
   
   Lawrence creating gold puck 
   
   Lawrence has now been sentenced to 30 months in jail, and pay a $190,000 fine, the estimated actual worth of the missing gold. 
   
   Ontario Court Justice Peter Doody also said Lawrence must repay the fine within three years of his release, or be sent back to jail for another 30 months. 
   
   Lawrence used the money to buy a house in Jamaica and a boat in Florida. 
   
   Internal video of screening room as Lawrence sets off main detector 
   
   
   
   The judge noted that the evidence was mostly circumstantial as no-one actually saw Lawrence taking the pucks and there was no video evidence although the pucks exactly fit the unique ladle used at the mint, and Vaseline and latex gloves were found in Lawrence’s locker at work. Four unsold pucks were also recovered from a safety deposit box. 
   
   Records show Lawrence also set off the metal detector more often than any other employee, but that subsequent checks with a wand did not set off alarms. 
   
   The Mint says it since improved its internal security measures. 
   
   Additional information- sources ||||| 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. 
   
   In November, 35-year-old Leston Lawrence was found guilty of stealing the 22 pucks from the mint on Sussex Drive, and of laundering 17 of them through Ottawa Gold Buyers (the cheque for an 18th puck never cleared because that puck was seized by police). 
   
   Lawrence 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. 
   
   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. 
   
   The weight of the 17 laundered pucks ranged from 192 to 264 grams apiece and were sold for between $6,800 and $9,500 each in 2014 and 2015. 
   
   Lawrence made $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. The full market value of the 17 pucks of gold is estimated to be about $190,000, according to a statement of restitution prepared by the mint in early January. 
   
   It's estimated that if Lawrence had managed to sell all 22 pucks through Ottawa Gold Buyers, Lawrence would have made about $165,000 — an amount based on what he sold the 17 pucks for. 
   
   Crown wanted 3 years, defence wanted 18 months 
   
   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. 
   
   Defence lawyer Gary Barnes says the judge in the gold smuggling trial was meticulous. 1:27 
   
   'Accepts that he has been convicted' 
   
   Speaking to reporters outside court Thursday, Barnes called Doody's decision careful and meticulous, and said it was "difficult to quibble with what he had to say." 
   
   Lawrence is reacting "very well" to the media interest in the case, Barnes said, and accepts the outcome of the trial. 
   
   "We expected it all along. ... When no one showed up for the first week and we were sort of under the radar, that was very, very surprising," Barnes said. 
   
   "He's sitting there looking at what the judge has done ... and he accepts that he has been convicted." 
   
   Barnes also reiterated that the mint's security measures were too lax. 
   
   Mint responds 
   
   In an emailed statement, a mint spokesperson wrote Thursday that "several improvements" have been made to their security system, "including upgrades to our facility's security checkpoint and screening process; upgrades to our camera system to high definition which provides real-time monitoring capability in all areas of the mint; and working closely with CATSA [Canadian Air Transport Security Authority] to establish more robust scanning training of our employees. 
   
   "The mint is one of the most secure facilities in Canada and we are confident that we have the right security measures in place to effectively operate our business," the statement reads.
target: – A Canadian man who smuggled $145,000 in gold out of the country's mint is on his way to prison—and will probably be searched extremely thoroughly on the way in. Leston Lawrence, found guilty in November of smuggling 22 gold "pucks" out of the Royal Canadian Mint in his rectum, has been sentenced to 30 months in prison and ordered to pay his former employers the full market value of the stolen gold, the CBC reports. Ontario Judge Peter Doody ruled that if the 35-year-old can't come up with the money within three years of getting out of prison, he'll have to go back behind bars for another 30 months. Lawrence—who set off metal detectors at work many times but always passed searches with a handheld wand—was convicted of conveying gold out of the mint, breach of trust by a public official, and possession of property obtained by crime, reports the BBC. Prosecutors said he used the $100,000 or so he made from selling the gold to Ottawa Gold Buyers to buy a house in Jamaica and a boat in Florida. Investigators, first alerted by a suspicious bank teller, found Vaseline and rubber gloves in Lawrence's work locker. In his safe deposit box at a bank, they discovered four unsold gold pucks, which had about the same diameter as a golf ball and matched the size of the ladle Lawrence used to test gold at the mint, Radio Canada International reports. (You'll never guess how this teen tried to smuggle a gun.)