Actress Lindsay Lohan will be charged with stealing a $2500 gold necklace from a Los Angeles jewelry store, Los Angeles prosecutors said on Tuesday.

If convicted, Lohan, 24, could be sent to prison just as she is struggling to end more than three years of court appearances, failed drug tests and brief spells in jail stemming from a 2007 drunk driving conviction.

Lohan is expected to appear in court and be charged on Wednesday with one count of felony grand theft after allegedly walking out of the store in January without paying for the necklace, the Los Angeles District Attorney's office said.

The theft charge comes just over a month after Lohan was released from a court-ordered three-month stay in rehab.

Lohan's lawyer said on Saturday that the "Mean Girls" actress "vehemently denies" the allegations and would fight them in court. Friends have said Lohan believed the necklace was on loan. It has been returned to police.

The actress is still on probation for the 2007 driving offense and was warned by a Beverly Hills judge in October that she could face six months in jail if she slipped up again.