Mint employee fired after 2 kg of gold found missing from Ottawa facility

OTTAWA – The Royal Canadian Mint says an employee has been fired after about two kilograms of gold was discovered missing from its facility in Ottawa.

Spokeswoman Alison Crawford says the gold, worth about $110,000 at current prices, was discovered missing last month during an internal inventory.

Crawford says an employee was terminated following an internal investigation and administrative review and the RCMP was called in to investigate.

She says the mint will make no further comment as the matter is under police investigation.

Crawford says large amounts of precious materials are handled at the mint's facilities, but says incidents of this nature are very uncommon.

In a previous incident, an employee stole gold "pucks" from the mint by hiding them in his rectum to evade metal detectors.

Leston Lawrence was sentenced in February 2017 to 30 months in prison, and was ordered to pay $190,000 in restitution.