A family member has shoplifted from the same local grocery store a few times in the past months. He doesn't know how much he's stolen (probably $300-400 in total) and we suspect he has kleptomania causing him to be unable to resist the urge to steal, however this is to be diagnosed professionally. A week ago he received a phone call from "the police" saying they wanted to talk to him about the thefts and that the store had CCTV evidence of the number of times he stole from the store. As he couldn't talk at the time, the "police" said they would call back later, but never did.
The family member knew he was in the wrong and was worried sick about being convicted with shoplifting offences so went to the store to negotiate a settlement and avoid having to go to court. The angry store owner asked for an amount in excess of $10,000 and said their lawyer was "in the process of putting things through the legal system". I just found out about all this today.
My questions are:
1) Isn't shoplifting a criminal offence so once the police is contacted, there really is no room for "private negotiation"? This leads me to think the store owner hasn't contacted the police and they got the family member's details somehow through local contacts
2) Is it wise to stop negotiating now and risk being charged? Is it time to talk to a lawyer?
3) Given there most likely is CCTV evidence of the multiple thefts, how possible is it to not have a conviction recorded against the family member?
Thank you
The family member knew he was in the wrong and was worried sick about being convicted with shoplifting offences so went to the store to negotiate a settlement and avoid having to go to court. The angry store owner asked for an amount in excess of $10,000 and said their lawyer was "in the process of putting things through the legal system". I just found out about all this today.
My questions are:
1) Isn't shoplifting a criminal offence so once the police is contacted, there really is no room for "private negotiation"? This leads me to think the store owner hasn't contacted the police and they got the family member's details somehow through local contacts
2) Is it wise to stop negotiating now and risk being charged? Is it time to talk to a lawyer?
3) Given there most likely is CCTV evidence of the multiple thefts, how possible is it to not have a conviction recorded against the family member?
Thank you