We live in Toronto, Ontario and 14 years ago my husband, don't ask me why, shoplifted at our local Home Depot store. He purchased a number of items but did not pay (stole) a $20 item. He was caught by the guard and police was called upon. He does not recall that he was ever charged with an offense. The police took his name and address, and verified to 1 piece of ID. He recall being told not to enter the store for 1 year.
We are now wondering if this was recorded as a court record. We recently had to go through a screening for entry into the states and was told that he has a theft record. My husband never went to court or received any documentation to indicate a charge. Would he not have gone to court if he was charged with theft.

My husband do have a cousin with the same name in Toronto and we know that he has been linked to our name in the past. At one point, we had to change our phone listing as we received too many solicitors calling and looking for him.

We have been told to obtain a police check, which we are, but it will take up to 3 weeks and we are concerned that the incident 14 years ago has come back to haunt us, or that his cousin once again has dragged us into something.

Any input or advice would be appreciated.

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Originally Posted by birgitta

We live in Toronto, Ontario and 14 years ago my husband, don't ask me why, shoplifted at our local Home Depot store. He purchased a number of items but did not pay (stole) a $20 item. He was caught by the guard and police was called upon. He does not recall that he was ever charged with an offense. The police took his name and address, and verified to 1 piece of ID. He recall being told not to enter the store for 1 year.
We are now wondering if this was recorded as a court record. We recently had to go through a screening for entry into the states and was told that he has a theft record. My husband never went to court or received any documentation to indicate a charge. Would he not have gone to court if he was charged with theft.

My husband do have a cousin with the same name in Toronto and we know that he has been linked to our name in the past. At one point, we had to change our phone listing as we received too many solicitors calling and looking for him.

We have been told to obtain a police check, which we are, but it will take up to 3 weeks and we are concerned that the incident 14 years ago has come back to haunt us, or that his cousin once again has dragged us into something.

Any input or advice would be appreciated.

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If he was stopped and never charged or fined or appeared in Court - as you state - then he would not have a criminal record for this charge - has he been in some other trouble?

It possibly is the cousin but I have no idea how to straighten out the confusion - you will probably need an Attorney.

In Canada you would have been mailed a letter of a date to report to the police station to be photo and fingerprinted, and then given a court date.

Could it be possible for some reason he failed to go to this?
You need to run a criminal record on yourself and see where the arrest is for. If it is not yours, you will have to normaly get an attorney to deal with this,

I don't ever recall receiving anything in the mail. My husband went to our local police department to enquiry himself yesterday, and the police officer was kind enough to run a check on his drivers license and nothing showed up.. he also ran a check on his cousins name (same) and birth-data and was told that his cousin is "highly likely" the one with the charge.. The only way to make sure is to do the criminal check.

We should have confronted his cousin years ago, when Revenue Canada called do verify his social insurance number. I was then told that his (cousins) income tax was filed under our address in their system. I don't understand how that can happen... but our lawyer also admitted to mixing our files up (we both used the same lawyer when purchasing a home). The lawyer called me one day and told me that my husband had bounced a cheque... well we had not dealt with him for years... that is when all the trouble really started with his cousin.