Judge Considers Deportation Risk in Sentencing Alberta Theft Case

An Alberta judge considered the potential immigration consequences, including possible deportation, in sentencing a woman from India convicted of stealing from her employer.

Ravneet Kaur, 26, who is a permanent resident of Canada, pled guilty to stealing products of a combined value of more than $7,000 from Walmart, where she was employed. The theft occurred in multiple incidents over a five-week period from Jan. 25 to March 1, 2024.

Justice James J. Ogle handed Kaur a five-and-a-half-month conditional sentence of imprisonment, saying he took into account factors including her guilty plea, absence of any prior record, arrangements for full restitution, and risk of deportation.

Kaur, who came to Canada on a student visa at 17, gained permanent residence in 2024. She has worked in the past in Canada in several different retail store positions, and is currently employed as security staff in a warehouse—a job she started after being fired from Walmart.

While employed at Walmart’s Cochrane, Alberta, location as a customer service clerk, Kaur stole goods, either by herself or in concert with others, by ringing in a different barcode to enter a much-reduced price, for the subject items, the court decision says. In other instances, Kaur took items outright or hid them in her employee locker for later retrieval.

None of the stolen items have been recovered.

Theft over $5,000 is considered a serious criminal offence that carries a maximum of 10 years imprisonment and no minimum sentence.

Kaur’s lawyer, Leanndria Halcro, had sought a conditional discharge with three years’ probation and other conditions, citing the deportation risk. Kaur had also said during trial that she feared she would suffer abuse at the hands of her family if deported to India, due to her lifestyle choices in Canada. She also told the court that she had committed the thefts due to financial hardship.

However, Ogle cited a 1976 case showing precedent that “theft from an employer would, in most cases, involving as it does a breach of trust, not warrant a discharge.”

While a conditional sentence does not eliminate the risk of deportation, the judge argued that deportation would not be a certainty given a shorter sentence.

“It is not at all a certainty that Ms. Kaur would be ultimately deported back to India as a result of this conviction, provided the sentence I impose is less than 6 months imprisonment,” he said.

Ogle said that a discharge can be appropriate in some theft cases, but only if the theft occurred in a single instance, the value of stolen goods was “very low,” the accused showed genuine remorse and was in especially sympathetic circumstances, and full restitution had been made.