Crossword Genius

Tons to carry? Lifting that will get you in trouble (5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

theft

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'lifting that will get you in trouble' is the definition.
'theft' can be an answer for 'lifting' (thesaurus). I am not certain of the rest of the definition.

'tons to carry?' is the wordplay.
'tons' becomes 't'.
'to carry?' becomes 'heft' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
't'+'heft'='THEFT'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for theft that I've seen before include "Pilfering" , "Taking of another's property" , "Action of stealing" , "Lifting" , "Burglary" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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