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Brits Can Have No Conviction But Criminal Record Haunts Them For 100 Years
Growing numbers of people are being turned down for jobs and university places because they accepted police cautions for minor offences without realising they would give them a criminal record.
New figures show that cautions showed up on 153,000 Criminal Records Bureau checks carried out last year, allowing employers to stop candidates working with children or in health and social care.
Young people caught shoplifting or taking part in drunken pranks are agreeing to sign the statements in the mistaken belief they will be wiped from databases after a few years, not realising that they remain on file until they turn 100.
A lawyer has now set up a business to help people affected by vetting checks find work or education, as the problem is becoming so common and overturning cautions is so difficult.
David Wacks, the legal director of CRB Problems Ltd, said: 'Minor incidents or pranks which in the past may have merited a 'good talking to' by a policeman often end up in cautions which may ruin a person's job prospects.'
Josie Appleton of the Manifesto Club, a libertarian group that is campaigning against out-of-court punishments, said: 'It is fundamentally unjust that people's careers can be blighted by a reprimand that hasn't been proven in a court of law.'
Jackie Sinclair from the crime reduction charity Nacro, said: 'Cautions, reprimands and final warnings do form part of a person's record, and are always disclosed on both standard and enhanced criminal record checks, even though many people have been told otherwise.'
In total 2.8 million cautions, known as first-time reprimands and final warnings when given to under-18s, have been handed out in England and Wales over the past decade.
They are usually offered by police after they arrest someone for shoplifting, possession of small amounts of soft drugs and minor violent crimes.
Station officers tell offenders they can either sign a statement to accept the caution and the matter will be closed, but if they refuse they will face prosecution.
Cautions do not count as convictions but they do require the perpetrator to admit their guilt and details are recorded on the Police National Computer.
Until 2009 there was a system whereby they would be 'stepped down' after a few years, but although this was removed it is widely believed that the penalties are wiped when teenagers turn 18.
Now cautions remain on a person's file until they turn 100 and although they do not have to be disclosed when applying for jobs, they show up on CRB checks.
The only way cautions can be deleted is by applying to the chief constable of the force that handed it out.
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