Leston Lawrence, a Royal Canadian Mint worker convicted of stealing 22 gold “pucks” by smuggling them in his rectum, was sentenced to 30 months in prison Thursday, the Ottawa Citizen reported.
“I’d just like to say thank you, sir, and that’s it,” Lawrence, 35, told Ontario Justice Peter Doody, who also ordered the former mint refinery operator to pay a fine of $145,900. “No further comment.”
Lawrence was convicted in November of stealing the gold pieces, worth more than $127,000, during a three-month period beginning in late 2014 and then reselling them and spending the proceeds. Lawrence had been a mint employee for seven years before he was fired in March 2015.
The weight of the laundered gold pieces ranged from 6.7 ounces to 9.3 ounces each and were sold for between $5,200 and $7,200 in 2014 and 2015, CBC News reported.
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