Conviction overturned... will it appear on my records?

[kr1776]

Hi,

First, I want to thank you in advance for any advice or tips. Last year, I mistakenly bought a discounted railcard ticket when my railcard had been expired for a week. The conductor took my details, despite me offering to renew my railcard or pay for a new ticket, and said I would be contacted with a fine. I did not receive this letter, and eventually I got taken for court for rail evasion. When I received the court summons, I was out of the country travelling so I was convicted as I did not attend court. When I got home and opened my letters I was obviously shocked, and looked into how I could fix this situation. I made a statutory declaration and then proceeded to settle out of court with the railway company, so my case was dismissed thankfully (I now always double check my railcard is valid lol).

Now, my question pertains to my criminal record. Will the previous conviction turn up on any background checks? If so, is there any way I can expunge my record as even though I was originally convicted, I had this case dismissed? Thank you so much.

I am applying for a new job currently and need to know whether I should disclose this (I don't think I should have to as I was effectively not convicted of anything).

Hope you all have a good day!

 

[yorkie]

Do you know the exact offence you were convicted of?

Also, is the check being made a standard DBS check or an enhanced DBS check?

Do you have a date the conviction was recorded, and a date it was quashed? and how soon is a DBS check likely to be made?

 

[tixy]

Upon having the case dismissed, the court will withdraw the certificate of conviction.

This means you are no longer convicted.

PNC is usually updated, but not all the time.

Quashing convictions: Why a quashed conviction doesn't automatically mean a clear criminal record - Unlock

unlock.org.uk

You might assume that if a conviction is overturned, it should no longer appear on a person’s criminal record. However, as with many thing about the criminal records system, it isn’t always that simple.

Astoundingly, there is no automatic process for a criminal record to be cleared in such cases.

A judge can direct the conviction to be removed from the Police National Computer (PNC) when it is quashed.

However, this doesn’t happen automatically in every case...

Even if a conviction is removed from the PNC, information could remain on local police records.

This creates a risk that information about an overturned conviction could still appear on an Enhanced DBS check in the police information section...

There are two ways you can go about it.

1. When completing your enhanced DBS application forms, tell the vetting company of the conviction, that it was overturned and you intend to raise a dispute with DBS once the certificate arrives. This will avoid any surprises.

2. As the original conviction would be unspent, you could apply for a basic DBS (£12) on the hope it has not been filtered.
If it appears, you can then open a dispute that way. When the dispute is upheld, any subsequent checks will not have the disputed conviction.

3. If you use the update service, call DBS customer service on 0300 0200190 for the dispute forms

 

[kr1776]

Do you know the exact offence you were convicted of?

Also, is the check being made a standard DBS check or an enhanced DBS check?

Do you have a date the conviction was recorded, and a date it was quashed? and how soon is a DBS check likely to be made?

Originally it was travel on railway without paying a fare. It was recorded in October and then quashed in December. It is going to be an enhanced DBS check and will happen in the next 3 months.

Upon having the case dismissed, the court will withdraw the certificate of conviction.

This means you are no longer convicted.

PNC is usually updated, but not all the time.

Quashing convictions: Why a quashed conviction doesn't automatically mean a clear criminal record - Unlock

unlock.org.uk

Thank you, do you know if there is a way for me to ensure the PNC is updated? Should I contact the magistrates court again about this?

 

[Pushpit]

There's a good chance it's not on the PNC at all, it's rare to see many byelaw or RoRA entries. Unless you are Armed Services, you would normally see the E-DBS before anyone else, and it is widely accepted that mistakes happen. So you can at that point bounce back to DBS or Disclosure Scotland and get it corrected, which they tend to do very quickly. I would say about 2% of E-DBS have something wrong on them, mostly trivial.

 

[kr1776]

There's a good chance it's not on the PNC at all, it's rare to see many byelaw or RoRA entries. Unless you are Armed Services, you would normally see the E-DBS before anyone else, and it is widely accepted that mistakes happen. So you can at that point bounce back to DBS or Disclosure Scotland and get it corrected, which they tend to do very quickly. I would say about 2% of E-DBS have something wrong on them, mostly trivial.

Thanks for your reassurance!

Upon having the case dismissed, the court will withdraw the certificate of conviction.

This means you are no longer convicted.

PNC is usually updated, but not all the time.

Quashing convictions: Why a quashed conviction doesn't automatically mean a clear criminal record - Unlock

unlock.org.uk

There are two ways you can go about it.

1. When completing your enhanced DBS application forms, tell the vetting company of the conviction, that it was overturned and you intend to raise a dispute with DBS once the certificate arrives. This will avoid any surprises.

2. As the original conviction would be unspent, you could apply for a basic DBS (£12) on the hope it has not been filtered.
If it appears, you can then open a dispute that way. When the dispute is upheld, any subsequent checks will not have the disputed conviction.

3. If you use the update service, call DBS customer service on 0300 0200190 for the dispute forms

Thanks, I have applied for a basic DBS and will dispute it if anything comes up. I am also going to reach out to the court to get some kind of physical documentation that the case was overturned, and request that it be removed from my records.

 

[AlterEgo]

These convictions aren't recordable on the PNC and won't show on a basic DBS unless someone makes a total muck-up. If the conviction is still in the court record, this will only come up on an Enhanced DBS, which you cannot request yourself. Getting some sort of record from the court is a good idea, though.

 

[Cricketer8for9]

Thanks for your reassurance!


Thanks, I have applied for a basic DBS and will dispute it if anything comes up. I am also going to reach out to the court to get some kind of physical documentation that the case was overturned, and request that it be removed from my records.

Posted in error

These convictions aren't recordable on the PNC and won't show on a basic DBS unless someone makes a total muck-up. If the conviction is still in the court record, this will only come up on an Enhanced DBS, which you cannot request yourself. Getting some sort of record from the court is a good idea, though.

If it’s not recordable by definition it won’t be on PNC (See Statutory Instrument 2000 No 1139). It is possible to be charged with a non-recordable and a recordable at the same time and convicted on both, in which case the non-recordable offence becomes recordable. Slightly more confusingly if the person is only convicted of the non-recordable there is, at least briefly, a standalone non-recordable on PNC. A routine weeding job deletes this.

As for the DBS standard and enhanced disclosures are required, by the relevant sections of the Police Act 1997 (113B from memory on enhanced certificates) to include information held on central records. Central Records is defined by another SI to be information held on a names database run by the Secretary of State for the benefit of constables (again from memory). Section 113B - I think it’s subsection 10 lists a series of bodies which can be asked to provide data which is likely to be relevant. The courts aren’t one of those bodies, because the court record on a DBS disclosure comes from an extract of the PNC sent to the DBS.

 

[AlterEgo]

As for the DBS standard and enhanced disclosures are required, by the relevant sections of the Police Act 1997 (113B from memory on enhanced certificates) to include information held on central records. Central Records is defined by another SI to be information held on a names database run by the Secretary of State for the benefit of constables (again from memory). Section 113B - I think it’s subsection 10 lists a series of bodies which can be asked to provide data which is likely to be relevant. The courts aren’t one of those bodies, because the court record on a DBS disclosure comes from an extract of the PNC sent to the DBS.

By what mechanism do non-recordable offences end up on Enhanced DBS certificates then? Because they can, and do, as part of "non police intelligence".

 

[Cricketer8for9]

Because information held by police forces, and a number of other bodies, which likely to be relevant can be included. In very simple terms, the DBS asks each police force (there’s a mechanism to check who might have information) and the force decides if what it holds is likely to be relevant. There are about 3.5m enhanceds issued each year about 11,000 have additional information. Most of that will be other information about the person (eg relevant intelligence) not a non-recordable conviction.

And remember that a non-recordable conviction at the same proceedings as a recordable become, by virtue of the SI, recordable. It is standalone non-recordables which get deleted. So that may be your source of non-recordables on PNC, though strictly speaking they are actually recordable.

 

[island]

These convictions aren't recordable on the PNC

Originally it was travel on railway without paying a fare.

That sounds like a s5 (3) Regulation of Railways Act offence, which is recordable. But we'd need to know the exact offence, not abbreviated.

 

[ledw12]

Hi, I have a similar situation and also have to submit a Statutory Declaration. I was wondering if you also had to submit a plea relating to a Single Justice Procedure and if so what do you do? I would also like to find a settlement with the rail company out of court. Thanks

 

[antharro]

@ledw12

Please start a new thread. No two issues are exactly the same and advice given in one thread may not be relevant to another. You should also take a moment to read the "please read before posting" information which you can find here: https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/please-read-before-posting-in-disputes-prosecutions.77759/