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Australian Gold Thief Just Wanted a Greek Holiday

An Australian man who stole more than AUD$200,000 ($156,000) worth of gold from a remote mine in Western Australia said he wanted to use his ill-gotten gains to fund a family holiday to Greece.

Joseph Andrew Cresp, 52, was working at the Sunrise Dam Gold Mine, 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) north-east of Perth, when he stole the precious metal in February last year.

“He saw the gold sitting there and wanted to surprise his wife for her birthday,” prosecutor Fiona Clare said.

ABC News reports that the court was told Cresp had been working on a pump at the mine’s mill during a routine shutdown when a pile of dirt containing nearly four kilograms of gold fell out of one of the sumps.

He hid the gold in his locker, walking out of the mine with it, driving home and hiding it in his gun safe.

After his confession, Cresp entered mediation with both the gold trader he defrauded and the owners of Sunrise Dam, South African mining giant Anglogold Ashanti.

In his sentencing remarks, Judge John Staude acknowledged that the 52-year-old had worked with the company’s representatives to identify and fix security risks his theft exposed.

A judge set him free after he ruled that Cresp had no sinister intent.

He said the 52-year-old’s actions were opportunistic, rather than explicitly criminal, and a prison term would cause undue hardship to Cresp’s family.

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