Charged With Stealing From Your Employer in Ontario: What Happens Now

Two things are happening at once, and they run on separate tracks. If you’ve been charged with stealing from your employer, you are facing a criminal charge under the Criminal Code of Canada, and you are almost certainly facing termination and possibly a civil claim. The criminal side is where your record, and potentially your freedom, is at stake.

The charge is usually theft under section 322 or fraud under section 380. What makes employee theft cases different from shoplifting charges is the relationship. Theft from an employer is treated more seriously than taking from a stranger, and that shapes everything from how the Crown approaches the file to what a judge does at sentencing. These cases also arrive with a stack of evidence already assembled, because the company investigated before it called police.

How These Cases Usually Begin

An internal investigation comes first, almost always. Someone in finance notices a gap, an audit flags irregular entries, or a manager reviews inventory and the numbers do not work.

What follows is a private process with no criminal law protections attached. HR or a loss prevention officer calls you into a meeting, asks questions, and sometimes presents what they have and asks you to explain it. People talk freely in that room because it feels like a workplace conversation, and because they hope cooperating keeps it internal.

Then the company hands its file to police, statement included.

Being accused of stealing by an employer often means the strongest evidence against you is something you said before anyone read you a caution. No officer is present, no right to counsel is given, and nobody is obliged to tell you the file is heading to police. Whether such a statement is admissible depends on the circumstances, but assume anything said in an internal interview may reach the Crown’s hands. If no meeting has happened yet, speak to counsel as soon as possible, before it does.

Theft or Fraud? What You Are Actually Charged With

It depends on how the money or property moved. Taking something outright is theft. Getting it through deception or a false record is fraud, and plenty of workplace files involve both.

How the two split in practice:

• Theft under section 322 covers physically taking property, so inventory, cash from a till, or equipment leaving the building, with the Crown needing to prove intent to deprive the owner
• Fraud under section 380 covers deceit, so falsified expense claims, fake invoices, payroll manipulation, or transfers someone moved fraudulently while dressing them up as legitimate
• Both are divided by value, with $5,000 as the line

Above $5,000, section 334 of the Criminal Code sets a maximum of ten years imprisonment for theft, while fraud carries a maximum of fourteen years in prison. Under $5,000, both are hybrid offences, meaning the Crown can elect to proceed summarily or by indictment, with a two-year maximum if prosecuted by indictment.

Employee fraud Ontario files often involve amounts accumulated over months or years, and the Crown usually charges the total rather than separate incidents. Someone who took modest amounts repeatedly can end up facing a single count of theft well past the $5,000 mark. The value of the theft drives much of what follows, so over $5,000 charges change the whole complexion of a case.

Why Breach of Trust Makes It Worse

Because the Criminal Code says so directly. Section 718.2(a)(iii) lists abuse of a position of trust or authority as an aggravating factor at sentencing, and workplace theft sits squarely inside it.

Ontario courts have been consistent about this for decades. An employer cannot supervise every transaction and has to rely on staff behaving honestly, so exploiting that access causes harm beyond the money itself. Sentences reflect that.

What it means practically is that a first offence charged with stealing from your employer can attract a harsher sentence than an identical amount taken from a store. The degree of breach of trust involved matters too. A bookkeeper with signing authority sits in a different position from a warehouse employee, and courts notice.

Section 380.1 adds further aggravating factors for fraud, including the size of the fraud, the planning behind it, and the impact on the victim.

What Sentence Are You Actually Looking At?

For a first offence with no prior criminal record and a modest amount, jail is often avoidable. Probation, a suspended sentence, or a conditional sentence served as house arrest are all realistic where the Crown proceeds by summary conviction.

The range moves with the numbers and the trust. Common outcomes in employee theft cases include:

• An absolute or conditional discharge, meaning no criminal record upon conviction, where the amount is small and restitution has been made
• A suspended sentence with probation, which does register a conviction
• A conditional sentence served in the community, sometimes with house arrest
• A jail sentence, which becomes considerably more likely with larger amounts, extended schemes, or a serious breach of trust

Restitution weighs heavily on the mitigating side. Repaying an employer before sentencing is one of the strongest factors available to defence counsel, though it does not end the prosecution. Timing and method matter, and doing it badly can hurt you, which our guide on paying the money back on a fraud charge covers in detail.

Can Your Employer Drop the Charges?

No. Once police lay a charge, only the Crown can withdraw it. An employer who says they have been repaid and want to drop the charges has influence, not authority.

What the company’s position does affect is the Crown’s view of the public interest. Where an employer confirms full restitution and no wish to proceed, a prosecutor may agree to withdraw the charge or resolve it through diversion. Files do end that way, and there are plenty of cases where the Crown withdrew the charge after restitution and a diversion program.

That is a negotiation, though, not an entitlement. It happens because experienced defence counsel put the material in front of the right person at the right time, not because the employer asked.

What About Your Job and a Civil Claim?

Assume the job is gone. Employment and criminal proceedings run separately, and an employer can terminate for cause on its own investigation regardless of the court outcome.

The standard is lower on the employment side too. A criminal conviction requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt, so the Crown must prove that the accused committed the offence to that standard. A civil claim runs on the balance of probabilities, meaning more likely than not. An employer can therefore win a civil case on evidence that would never support a conviction.

Companies sometimes sue to recover losses where the amounts are significant. Restitution ordered in the criminal case gets credited against any civil award, so you do not pay twice, but the exposure is real. One caution: statements made in an employment process, including at a grievance or arbitration, can find their way into the criminal file.

Can You Avoid a Criminal Record?

Sometimes, and it turns on the amount, your record, and how the file is handled early. Avoiding a criminal record is realistic in the right case.

Where the value is modest, there is no prior criminal record, and restitution has been made, the Crown may agree to withdraw the charge through a direct accountability program, with nothing registered on completion. Our guide on criminal diversion in Ontario explains who qualifies.

A conditional discharge is the next step down, meaning a finding of guilt without a permanent criminal record attached. For someone in a regulated profession answering to a body like the Law Society of Ontario, or whose permanent residence or immigration status depends on staying clean, that outcome is often the entire objective.

Larger amounts and extended schemes make these routes harder. Not impossible, but harder, and whether you go to trial or resolve the matter early affects what stays on the table.

Frequently Asked Questions About Being Charged With Stealing From Your Employer

What happens if you are charged with theft from your employer in Ontario?
You face a criminal charge under the Criminal Code, usually theft under section 322 or fraud under section 380, and separately you will likely be terminated. The criminal case proceeds regardless of what your employer wants, since the Crown decides whether to prosecute once charges are laid.

Can an employer drop criminal charges for workplace theft?
No. Once police lay a charge, the decision belongs to the Crown, not the employer. A company can tell the prosecutor it has been repaid and does not wish to proceed, which carries weight, but it cannot withdraw the charge or end the prosecution itself.

Is stealing from your employer treated more seriously than other theft?
Yes. Section 718.2(a)(iii) of the Criminal Code makes abuse of a position of trust an aggravating factor at sentencing. Ontario courts consistently impose harsher sentences for employer theft than for comparable amounts taken from strangers, because employers must rely on employees they cannot directly supervise.

What is the maximum penalty for employee theft in Canada?
Theft over $5,000 under section 334 of the Criminal Code carries a maximum of ten years imprisonment. Fraud over $5,000 under section 380(1)(a) carries a maximum of fourteen years. Below $5,000, both are hybrid offences with a two-year maximum if the Crown proceeds by indictment.

Should you talk to HR during an internal theft investigation?
Get legal advice first. Internal investigations carry no right to counsel or police caution, and statements made in an HR meeting are often handed to police with the company’s file. What feels like a workplace conversation can become the strongest evidence in a criminal case.

Before the Next Meeting, Talk to Us

The decisions that shape these cases get made early, often before anyone is formally charged. What you say in an internal interview, whether you repay and how, and how the first appearance at the courthouse is handled all affect where this lands.

At Kazandji Law, we defend theft and fraud charges throughout Ontario, including workplace files involving bookkeepers, managers, retail staff, and anyone with real financial access. We look hard at what the company’s investigation actually proves, whether statements were obtained in circumstances that make them usable, and whether the amount alleged holds up. Then we work toward the outcome that protects your record, whether that means diversion, a discharge, or fighting the charge outright. Being charged with stealing from your employer is a serious situation, and it is one where early advice changes results. There is more on our criminal defence page, and if police have contacted you, read our guide on answering police questions in Canada first.

Reach us at 647-588-3234 in Toronto or 647-697-5975 in Thornhill, or book a free consultation through our contact page. If a meeting with HR or police is coming, call before it happens.