I live in Ontario and was charged with theft under $5,000. The problem being it was from my employer. I am 19 (18 at the time) and have a perfectly clean record, am a high school graduate and will be starting college in the fall. I just made a mistake and did an extremely stupid thing from which I have learned so much. My question is the crown attorney would not agree to the diversion program as it was theft from employer so I got a lawyer who has negotiated with the crown for a conditional discharge with community service. We still have to go before the judge to have his or her input on this and my lawyer suggested I complete the community service prior to the next court date as it would look better. I have already done this. So, I guess this is the best that I will be able to obtain, I was hoping to have the charges dropped altogether since it was my first offence however I guess that would not be possible. Will the judge consider anything more lenient than a conditional discharge or should I just go with this and see what happens. I am concerned as I had been considering a career in the police force and therefore cannot have a criminal record but I guess at this point there would be a record of all of this anyway. I know what I did was stupid but it was totally out of character for me I just got talked into it from other people who had it before at the store and I guess I wanted to appear "cool" in front of them. I was the only one who got caught in the end. I learned from this and just want to set the stage as best as possible so I can continue on with my life. Any comments or suggestions?

I live in Ontario and was charged with theft under $5,000. The problem being it was from my employer. I am 19 (18 at the time) and have a perfectly clean record, am a high school graduate and will be starting college in the fall. I just made a mistake and did an extremely stupid thing from which I have learned so much. My question is the crown attorney would not agree to the diversion program as it was theft from employer so I got a lawyer who has negotiated with the crown for a conditional discharge with community service. We still have to go before the judge to have his or her input on this and my lawyer suggested I complete the community service prior to the next court date as it would look better. I have already done this. So, I guess this is the best that I will be able to obtain, I was hoping to have the charges dropped altogether since it was my first offence however I guess that would not be possible. Will the judge consider anything more lenient than a conditional discharge or should I just go with this and see what happens. I am concerned as I had been considering a career in the police force and therefore cannot have a criminal record but I guess at this point there would be a record of all of this anyway. I know what I did was stupid but it was totally out of character for me I just got talked into it from other people who had it before at the store and I guess I wanted to appear "cool" in front of them. I was the only one who got caught in the end. I learned from this and just want to set the stage as best as possible so I can continue on with my life. Any comments or suggestions?

You have an Attorney who has presumably negotiated the best possible "deal" for you. Your Attorney knows the ins and outs of the offense as well as the law - it this is what he has negotiated and it only needs the stamp of approval from the Judge you'd be very, very stupid indeed to try to change the deal now.