The Royal Canadian Mint has fired an employee after roughly $110,000 worth of gold went missing from its Ottawa facility.
The Mint says two one-kilogram discs of gold were deemed missing following an internal inventory check last month. One employee has been fired and the RCMP has been called in to investigate.
"As a result of robust internal inventory processes employees reported a small amount of gold missing from the premises," Alison Crawford, spokesperson for the Mint, said in a statement to CTV Ottawa.
The Mint wouldn’t comment on the nature of the employee’s termination, only that the gold is still missing.
Last year, the Mint upgraded its security system with additional staff training and more video cameras, but Crawford says the agency’s security protocols are once again under evaluation.
"Our vigorous security measures and protocols are subject to on-going scrutiny and evaluation,” she said in the statement. “The Mint remains committed to managing risks to our products and facilities."
Following news of the missing disks, Conservative and Liberal MPs expressed the need for a security review at the facility.
“This shocked a lot of us,” said Conservative MP Erin O’Toole. “This should cause the Mint to review their procedures.”
Liberal MP Mark Holland agreed with O’Toole and said if the investigation finds any wrongdoing, then “obviously” the department would review.
This isn’t the first time gold has gone missing. In 2017, Leston Lawrence, a former employee at the facility, was convicted and sentenced to 30 months in jail for stealing $190,000 worth of gold “pucks” by smuggling them past security using his rectum.
Ottawa-area lawyer Lawrence Greenspon says if an employee is once again found to have stolen the gold, they could face a similar fate.
“They’d be looking at a theft over $5,000 charge,” he said. “They’d also possibly be facing charges of breach of trust.”
With a report from CTV Ottawa’s Megan Shaw
