Canadian Royal Mint employee accused of smuggling gold worth £105,000 in rectum

A Canadian Royal Mint employee allegedly smuggled $180,000 (£105,000) in gold from the high security Ottowa facility concealed in his rectum.

Leston Lawrence, 35, faces charges including theft, laundering the proceeds of crime, possession of stolen property and breach of trust, Ottawa Citizen reported.

An Ottawa court heard that Lawrence concealed several small nuggets – called pucks – out of the facility to a nearby shopping centre.

He then allegedly sold the nuggets at a gold dealers in the mall for up to $6,800, depositing the cheques in a nearby Royal Bank branch.

A bank teller became suspicious of the number of Ottawa Gold Buyers cheques Lawrence was depositing, his request to have the money transferred from the country, and the fact that he worked at the Royal Mint, and alerted authorities.

After police obtained a search warrant, they found four Royal Mint style pucks in Lawrence's Safety deposit box, the court heard.

Investigators said they found a jar of Vaseline in Lawrence's locker, and believe the pucks could have been concealed in an anal cavity, thus allowing him to pass security without setting off alarms.

Records revealed that 18 pucks had been sold between November and March 2015, which together with the value of gold coins sold amounted to an estimated $179,015.

Lawrence denies the charges, and his defence team claims that there is no evidence proving that the pucks sold came from the Royal Mint, as they had no markings and no gold had been reported missing internally.