If you’ve been caught shoplifting, you may get a letter from the store telling you to pay them money. Stores do this to try to get compensation for the store's costs, such as paying store security, relating to criminal offences such as theft and fraud. For more information on these types of letters, see the following resources: 

• Shoplifting, from the Canadian Bar Association BC Branch, includes a section about shoplifting and scary notices.
• Shoplifting And Scary Notices is a LawLine Blog post (**note that LawLine is no longer in operation)

If you’ve been served with legal documents starting a court claim against you, you should get legal advice right away. For possible options for legal help, see the Clicklaw HelpMap.
 

See our related common questions:

• See all common questions about crimes & offences
• See all common questions about debt

tags

shoplifting, shoplift, civil demand letter, collection agent