Okay, so. I'm over 18 years of age and this would be my very first criminal charge, if it occurs.

I was approached by employer regarding suspicious activity and basically told that my admission to him would ease issues and that he would be following up if I did not. So that said, I did not. I was going to write a letter of apology as many people here have done and fessed up, but after rigorous research have determined that to be more detrimental to my rights and position than positive in any way.

This is not direct theft from my employer, but from a large corporation that provides coupons with cash value to the business; this is not money out of the employer's pocket. I don't know if that has any bearing in Canadian criminal court, but it is fact. There is no physical video of me actually taking said coupons from the store. The coupons cannot be tracked. They may have a computer system that logs when coupons are 'awarded', but literally within thousands of other transactions a day, over a time of months and months, and not every day.

I get the feeling that it would be more cost in manpower than worth to sift through all of that information, and that this was more of a tactic to get me to confess to a crime than anything else.

I feel terrible about all of this, as it was do to struggling financially and being shouldered with many other burdens, and it seemed to click into play psychologically when many personal aspects of my life came crashing down; but hindsight is fifty fifty.

At any rate, I am meeting for a consultation with a criminal defense lawyer ahead of time for some legal advice, with the knowledge that this may come back to bite me in the . Circumstantial evidence as they say, is still evidence.

Just looking for some advice here to see if I'm making the correct decisions.

They must have some evidence of wrong doing. You apparently don't want to accept your wrong doing. Your rationale about manpower, burdens etc won't hold much sway with evidence. Now you are paying for an attorney.

They must have some evidence of wrong doing. ...

Either that, or they are telling everybody that, have nothing, are bluffing, and hoping that they can hoodwink a guilty employee into confessing.

I'm 100% willing to accept my wrongdoings, if it will make it go away. Consultation is free, and I'd rather have someone with a high success rate in this kind of law behind me if the need does arise. I feel awful about it, and I've never done something so foolish in my life.

Some evidence of wrongdoing perhaps. But they cannot show me physically taking anything.

Anyway my question did not have anything to do with how I feel about the situation, but whether I was handling it properly. Maybe excon has some advice?

Hello moon:

Maybe excon has some advice?Sure, I'll weigh in.. I have a couple observations.. You say that they won't/can't come up with evidence because of the MOUNTAIN of stuff they'd have to look through. You believe they WON'T do that. I believe they WILL.

Secondarily, I think you ARE handling the situation properly. My bet is that your lawyer will grease the skids for you to make proper amends WITHOUT criminal charges being filed.

excon

I coupon and do know that coupons are considered the same as money. So for you to think it is just coupons is wrong for you. With coupons a customer gets a deal on a product: money off, percentage off, buy one get one free, or free product and the store gets money from the company for accepting said coupons. There is a loss involved and if it goes to court do not say it was only coupons. I hope you did not sell them on Ebay as that can be tracked.
I would follow Excons advice as he knows his stuff.