Originally Posted by
agnathan
Hi everyone,
I'm 19 years old and live in Ontario. A while back I was charged with theft under and possession under $5000 after taking items from a store. The security guard caught me and took me to the back, told me my rights, etc, and called the police; an officer showed up and told me what was going to happen, she gave me a fingerprinting date and a court date, then the mall security gave me a sheet of "intended legal action notice". The notice basically says they will be sending me a bill of the losses and if I don't pay it they will take me to court. DO NOT PAY THE BILL SENT BY THE STORE, I can't stress it enough, DO NOT PAY THE BILL SENT BY THE STORE. Just think about it, whatever you took can't be worth over $300~600, yet they are billing you for that much. The mall is taking advantage of you losing your mind over the matter - what REALLY pissed me off was that the officer even supported the security guard's argument.
Anyway I had my fingerprinting about a month after the incident and it was an easy process that took about 15 minutes. I had my court date about a week or two after the fingerprint date. I went to the court about half an hour earlier and the court officer handed me a sheet and told me to go talk to a duty cousel who did all the paperwork, then the duty counsel sent me to the probation office (as I was offered the diversion/alt. measures program).
I had to tell the probation officer what I did and why I did, just be straight forward and honest with your answers. Because I had to go out of province to work during the summer, the probation officer tried to work with my schedule and came up with a solution to have me finish the diversion program before I go (very nice). So I have to write an essay regarding the incident and donate $200 to a charity and show the probation officer the recipt, that was it. I walk away clean and they destroy fingerprints and records of the incident in two years, however at the end of the two years time I should go sk for a criminal record check to make sure that they have wiped the record.
The probation officer was the one who told me that I didn't have to pay the $300~600 bill that the mall sent, unfortunately it was already a month since the notice so I have already paid it :( the officer even told me that the cops should've stayed out of it, she even gave me an article on it - so much for the cops being justice enforcers -_-
One thing though, go to the court in at least a semi-formal attire to show them you take it seriously (attitude matters too of course).
So, if you skipped the long writting or you read all of it, the take home message here is:
- DO NOT PAY THE BILL THAT THE MALL SENT
- Don't stress over it, you've made a mistake, just learn from it and don't do it again
- DO NOT PAY THE BILL THAT THE MALL SENT
Hope this helps
P.S. Thanks everyone who helped me on the site before
