Man allegedly smuggled $180k of gold in bum

Prosecutors alleged that Leston Lawrence stole 210-gram, "cookie-sized" nuggets of gold called "pucks", along with dozens of gold coins.

A Canadian Mint employee has been accused of smuggling $180,000 (NZ$187,500) worth of gold out of the fortress-like facility in his rectum.

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

Prosecutors alleged that, on multiple occasions between November 2014 and March 2015, Lawrence stole 210-gram, "cookie-sized" nuggets of gold called "pucks", along with dozens of gold coins.

The Mint worker, who allegedly would sell the chunks to a local gold buyer before depositing the cheques, was caught after a bank teller became suspicious of the size of the transactions.

Lawrence was employed in the refinery section, where he would scoop gold from buckets so it could be tested for purity, the paper reported.

While prosecutors could not prove how the gold was smuggled out, investigators found a container of vaseline in Lawrence's locker.

The court was presented with the prospect that the puck could be concealed in an anal cavity and not detected by the metal detector wand.

"We do have compelling evidence of someone secreting [gold] on his person and taking it out of the Mint," Crown prosector David Friesen said.

The court was told that in preparation for the proceedings, a security employee tested the idea.