US prosecutors said they will charge Lindsay Lohan with felony grand theft of a $2,500 necklace reported stolen from a jewellery store.

The charge, which will be filed tomorrow, brings the troubled star another step closer to returning to jail.

Los Angeles police had said that Ms Lohan was under investigation for taking a necklace from a Venice store later identified as Kamofie and Co.

Detectives obtained a search warrant to try to retrieve the item from Ms Lohan’s home, but it was turned into a police station before any search was made.

A phone message to Lohan’s attorney, Shawn Chapman Holley, was not immediately returned.

The 24-year-old remains on probation for a 2007 drunken driving case and a judge had threatened to throw her in jail if she ran into trouble again.