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?

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Originally Posted by emery

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?

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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.