Theft

Theft means taking someone else's property, or treating it as your own, when you had no honest belief that you had a legal right to do that. It still counts as theft even if you only meant to take the property for a while.

Two ideas in the law are worth knowing in plain terms:

• "Fraudulently" means the taking or use was dishonest — not accidental, and not based on an honest claim of right.
• "Colour of rightThe honest belief that an act is justifiable" means an honest belief that you actually had a legal right to the property. If you genuinely, even if mistakenly, believed the item was yours or that you were allowed to take it, that can be important to a theft charge.

"The Crown" is the prosecutor — the government lawyer who brings the charge. To convict you of theft, the prosecutor must prove, beyond a reasonable doubtThe high standard the Crown must meet to prove guilt., that:

1. you took or used property that belonged to someone else;
2. you did so dishonestly and without an honest belief you had a right to it; and
3. you meant to steal it — for example, to keep it, to deprive the owner of it, or to deal with it so it could not be returned in the same condition.

The law also says theft can be complete as soon as you start to move the property with the intention of stealing it. You do not have to get away with it for it to count.

Canada deals with criminal charges in two main ways:

• Summary convictionLess-serious criminal offences — the process used for less serious cases, with lower maximum penalties.
• Indictable — the process used for more serious cases, with higher maximum penalties.

Most theft charges are hybrid, which means the prosecutor chooses which of those two ways to proceed, based on the case.

Theft is split by the value of what was taken.

• Theft over $5,000, or theft of a will or similar document: if the prosecutor proceeds by indictment, the maximum is 10 years in prison. Lower maximums apply if the case proceeds by summary conviction.
• Theft of $5,000 or less: if the prosecutor proceeds by indictment, the maximum is 2 years in prison. Lower maximums apply if the case proceeds by summary conviction.

Some theft-related charges are separate offences with their own rules and penalties. Examples may include theft by a person holding power of attorney, motor vehicle theft, credit-card offences, and robbery.

Those offences should be checked on their own pages.