I am from Canada and have been arrested for theft under 5000... very stupid mistake! I have yet to go to court or anything but ideally I won't end up with a criminal record. But there will still be records on file of my arrest and fingerprints right? How can I get rid of these? Can it be immediately after the diversion program?

I am so ashamed that as a Canadian you are posting here, I am Canadian, and you are asking how you can get rid of fingerprints and a criminal record. You cant. You will have these forever haunting your future jobs, your future mortgages, anything that you want to do, you will think that somewhere they will be able to dig all of this up.

If you have an understanding judge who thinks you will reform and not steal again, then maybe, yes, it will be light.

But..,. why did you steal in the first place and how old are you ?

Tick

Of course not, there are always records, they may be sealed but they are there. Even the plea and diversion program records will be in the court records. Fingerpints are merely ID, and once in the national data base, they are there, the local sets may be destroyed. Police reports and records are not destroyed

Well I am 19 and honestly have no idea why I did it... I've never done anything like that in my life or have ever thought of it. I definitely plan to NEVER do it again... it is against my moral values in the first place.

It isn't a criminal record I am asking about... it's an arrest record. Which means there has been arrest... but no follow through... so no conviction... no criminal record. Just an arrest record stating that I have been arrested.

My main concern is travelling across the US/Canada border without questions being asked about the arrest.

Is there some sort of way to have the record file purged?

And I don't really appreciated the harshness of your words 'Tick', I have never been so ashamed and scared in my life. I am simply asking about arrest records and not criminal ones. I realize that what I've done is horrible and I should face reality... but I thoroughly regret it to the point that I've been in therapy. I'm just trying to find a way to put this behind me and not effect the rest of my life.

Whether you don't appreciate my response or not, it is an open forum so take it or leave it, you came on and put it out there, so were you expecting someone to say, gee that's too bad, yes, it will be gone.

Fr_Chuck's response is valid, the police report will always be there, so if you want to be bonded for a job and need a police record check, yes, it will show up.

As for the border, well leave it up to the judge and see what happens.

Tick