Seized gold returned to miner after 2-year run-around

Jul 22, 2022 News

Kaieteur News – Some may call it a waste of time but a miner from Pomeroon, Region Two is still grateful that he was finally able to recover his gold from police on Wednesday after running around for two years.

Smelted gold

Speaking with Kaieteur News, the miner, 26-year-old Leon Thomas, said that he had gotten into an unfortunate situation in 2020.

He related that he was working in a Region Seven Backdam on a dredge and was accused of stealing 13.3 pennyweight of gold from his employer. He claimed that he did not steal the gold from his boss but had earned the gold while punting (a term used for hustling independently for gold in a mining area) during his free time in the same backdam.

Nevertheless Region Seven police were called in and Thomas was detained. The gold in question, said to be amalgamated gold (meaning that the raw gold was mixed with mercury), was seized by police to facilitate an investigation.

Thomas was released from custody on $40,000 bail and a decision was later taken for his boss to deduct the value of the alleged stolen gold from his salary. The value of the gold was calculated to be equivalent to $195,000. After the money was deducted, the office of Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had advised that no charge should be instituted against Thomas on the basis of restitution.

Restitution means that Thomas had replaced what his boss had alleged was stolen. When this process was over, Thomas was convinced the police would have returned the gold to him in a timely manner but it took them two years.

“I got back my bail money but I had to run up and down to the Bartica Police Station to get back my gold,” Thomas said on Wedneday.

The miner claimed that he lives in Pomeroon and had to spend at least $15,000 in passage to travel to and from Bartica on multiple occasions.

The man said that he had even gotten frustrated with the “run around” and had decided to authorise someone to uplift the gold on his behalf.

Thomas related that he had authorised the individual because (the individual) lives in Bartica and he (Thomas) did not want to spend more money on passage to be disappointed again.

A few weeks ago, Thomas contacted Kaieteur News to vent his frustration after the individual he had reportedly authorised to collect the gold was unable to do so.

Commander of the Region Seven police district, Dion Moore had highlighted to this newspaper that it is against protocol for his ranks to hand over seize items to someone who is not the owner.

As such Moore advised that Thomas make the sacrifice one more time and travel to Bartica to uplift his gold.

Thomas made the trip on Tuesday but was told to return the following day since the process could not have been completed that day.

The miner said he was disappointed again because he had to expend even more money on transportation.

Thomas said he decided to follow through because “things were tight”.

On Wednesday, the gold was finally handed over to Thomas and he was eager to sell it. However, after smelting the 13.3 pennyweight of amalgamated gold (removing the mercury and other impurities) only 5.3 pennyweight of pure gold remained.

The value for that amount of gold he was told is only $76,000.

Although saddened that the sum he spent on transportation might have exceeded what he raked in for the gold, Thomas said that he is, nevertheless, grateful because “the money will still come in handy.”