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Men caught stealing gold, posing with nuggets on Facebook fined

Xinhua, May 16, 2017 Adjust font size:

Three men who stole 60,000 Australian dollars (44,467 U.S. dollars) worth of gold while attending a barbecue at a mine site in Western Australia have been fined 5,000 Australian dollars (3,705 dollars) each, a court ruled Monday.

The incident occurred on June 4, 2016, when the men stumbled across the precious metal after entering a mining pit operated by Evolution Mining.

According to their defense lawyers, they believed the site to be inactive.

Andrew Mark Warren, Stephen Lindsay Rowe and Michael James Forward plead guilty to the charges after the Western Australian Gold Stealing Detection Unit found the trio posing with the nuggets on Facebook immediately after the crime.

Taking pity on the men, Magistrate John O'Sullivan said "Clearly, if you were planning to steal this gold, you wouldn't post it on Facebook."

A fourth man who plead not guilty is due to stand trial later in the year. Endit