theForum » Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (ROA) » Difference between spent and unspent convictions » Spent/Unspent

Spent/Unspent

Ab123 — Fri, 22 May 2020 09:23:25 GMT

Can you explain here what it is mean?

What is different between Spent and Unspent?
I still can apply the job if I am still on spent and unspent?
Thank you

RE: Spent/Unspent

JASB — Fri, 22 May 2020 09:23:25 GMT

[quote]

[b]Simon1983 - 21 May 20 5:20 PM[/b]

Hi JASB

Hope your well, let me try and clear this up, you need to look at it from two sides of the coin.

There is no direct relationship between the rehabilitation of offenders act and the sex offences register.

In your situation you were sentenced to 4 years, that gives you a rehabilitation period of your 4 year sentence plus 7 year buffer period.

In the normal situation after that period your conviction would be classed as spent.

Your trouble is that you have an active court order, in this instance a SOPO/SHPO, and while this is active then the rehabilitation of offenders act does not apply and your conviction remains unspent while the order is active.

This apples not only to SHPO/SOPO but any active court order for eg

Criminal Behaviour Orders
Compensation Orders
Confiscation Orders
Disqualification from driving
Football Banning Orders
Forfeiture Orders
Restraining Orders
Sexual Harm Prevention Orders

The ROA states that while a court order is active then your conviction remains unspent. If and once a court order expires then your conviction becomes spent.

If the SHPO/SOPO is not dated or for an indefinite period then the conviction is unspent until you are able to take it back to court normally after five years to either get it revoked or amended to either 2,5,7 or 10 years period.

On the other side of the coin you have the sex offenders register, if you are on it for life, under new guildlies as you know you can apply to come off 15yrs from the date of your first notification period (your first notification period normally being the first time you register 3 days after leaving prision.)

Sadly the small print of the sex offenders register is that if you have an active court order you will remain on the register, until said order is revoked or expires.

When SOPO first came out then CPS and judges did not understand this, and were giving SOPO at a greater length than time on the register, so at one stage you had people that should only have been on the register for maybe two years on it for nearly 10 years

It should be that a SHPO/SOPO should run the same period as the time on the register 2/5/7/10/indefinitely

So as per BenS example you have an offender that was sentenced to 12mths with a 10yrs SHPO and 10years on the register.

Under normal circumstances a person with a one year sentence would have a spent conviction 4 years after his sentence is completed (the 12mths) meaning after a total of five years his offence is spent. The trouble is this person was given a 10year SHPO there for while this order is still active his offence will still be deemed as unspent and still have to be disclosed.

As a convicted sex offender that is on the register for life and has a SHPO/SOPO you can rip the ROA up and forget about it, because until you remove the court order your conviction remains unspent, so you are looking at an average time of 15yrs until your conviction becomes spent, as most people would not be able to get there SHOP/SOPO remover by a count until they look to apply to come off the register.

Hope that helps

Stay safe

[/quote]

Hi
Thank you for the reply.
I was aware of the majority of the reply but thanks for the detailed reminder. It was just the confusion on the one point as I explained. Again it seems the system's monitor's are inaccurate.

For Info:
Your final sentence is something I have been working at since ending the "licence" period of my sentence. I have been successful on removing the majority of my conditions within 6 years of the court order and now concentrating on the final two conditions that; being pedantic, have no justification or linkage to my actual offence. This point seems to be acknowledge as my PPU is receptive to supporting my application in the near future. In other words, these two allow 'regressive questioning' opportunities on the yearly visits. That would then give me 5 years to plan the SOR application. For clarity I prefer to work with my PPU so gaining their support even though past the 5 year requirement; obviously in the end I will/do proceed without it in a constructive and challenging manner.

Strange fact :)
Re: 'your first notification period normally being the first time you register 3 days after leaving prison.' This default example has caused confusion with various "authorities" due to their not reading my file. In some discussions they are unaware that I was on bail for 2 years before sentencing - even though I admitted my quilt at the initial Police interview. The strange part was that it took a year for me to be able to enter a plea in court and so I registered on the SOR for the first time a year before I was sentenced. This obviously means I was already 3 years into being on the SOR at the point of your example.

As ever keep safe and writing.

RE: Spent/Unspent

Simon1983 — Thu, 21 May 2020 17:20:52 GMT

Criminal Behaviour Orders
Compensation Orders
Confiscation Orders
Disqualification from driving
Football Banning Orders
Forfeiture Orders
Restraining Orders
Sexual Harm Prevention Orders

RE: Spent/Unspent

JASB — Thu, 21 May 2020 12:48:44 GMT

[quote]

[b]BenS - 7 Nov 18 8:15 AM[/b]

Simple answer: your conviction is unspent for as long as you have an SHPO, regardless of the rehabilitation period of the sentence.

As an example, imagine you have a 1-year sentence with a 10-year SHPO:

The 1-year sentence would usually be spent after 4 years as per the ROA. However, due to the SHPO, it will remain unspent until the 10 years is up.

Hope that helps clarify things.

Being on the SOR is different, and does not make an otherwise spent conviction, unspent. It's only a SOPO/SHPO that stops a conviction from being spent.

[/quote]

Hi BenS,
I rec'd 4 yrs sentence so life time SOR - I will appeal at 15 yrs stage.
I have a sopo but hope to have removed in next year.
However i have always been told that it will become spent 7 years from the end of my 4 yrs sentence - PPU and PO stated this.
I know I cannot appeal to come off SOR whilst I have sopo conditions so has there been confusion over the information you give?
No offence but I am confused at what you suggest as it goes against the information provided to me?

RE: Spent/Unspent

Yankee — Thu, 21 May 2020 11:48:03 GMT

[quote]

[b]Harry53 - 10 May 20 6:13 PM[/b]

[quote]

[b]BenS - 7 Nov 18 8:15 AM[/b]

[/quote]

My conviction will be spent next summer. I am retired so not worried about disclosures but will it ease my travel to other countries ? I will have 5 years left on my SOR when it is spent

[/quote]

The fact that your conviction is spent makes no difference while you are still on the SOR. You still have to notify travel to your PPU. If EU travel, they will place an alert on the Schengen Information System (at least until the end of the Brexit transition period, afterwards depends on what deal is negotiated). Beyond the EU, the PPU will undertake a risk assessment and determine whether to issue a green notice or not. Spend/unspent unfortunately doesn't change any of those processes at the moment.

RE: Spent/Unspent

Simon1983 — Sun, 10 May 2020 18:33:12 GMT

Hi Harry53

Until the end of the year travelling within Europe and the schengen area Will not change no mater if your conviction is spent or not, once brixt set in then it’s a different story, the links below from the unlock hub page gives some good information

https://hub.unlock.org.uk/travel-to-the-eu-post-brexit/#offences-listed-in-the-annex

what you have to remember is while your on the register you have to notify the police to travel out side the uk.

i would there for wait until you are off the register to travel world wide outside of Europe, because you would be able to for example go to the USA using an ESTA lie that you don’t have a record on the form, go and have a good time and then come back to the UK, you could do the same to get into Canada.

you need to remember that the UK does not share information with other countries regarding the PNC.

so if you try and travel while still on the register to eg USA your PPU officer will open a whole can of worms because they will ask what have you done about a visa. Once your off the register you can do what you like

hope that makes sense

RE: Spent/Unspent

Harry53 — Sun, 10 May 2020 18:13:51 GMT

[quote]

[b]BenS - 7 Nov 18 8:15 AM[/b]

[/quote]

My conviction will be spent next summer. I am retired so not worried about disclosures but will it ease my travel to other countries ? I will have 5 years left on my SOR when it is spent

RE: Spent/Unspent

BenS — Wed, 07 Nov 2018 08:15:14 GMT

Mr W — Tue, 06 Nov 2018 19:36:18 GMT

[quote]

[b]AB2014 - 21 Mar 17 1:21 PM[/b]

[quote]

[b]Ab123 - 13 Mar 17 11:52 PM[/b]

Can you explain here what it is mean?

What is different between Spent and Unspent?
I still can apply the job if I am still on spent and unspent?
Thank you

[/quote]

Hi,

The difference between spent and unspent is that unspent convictions have to be disclosed for work or insurance, if you are asked. Unspent convictions don't have to be disclosed for insurance or for most jobs. There's information about this on the Unlock website here. You can apply for jobs if your conviction is still unspent - there's information about it on the Unlock website here.

Good luck

[/quote]

I used the calculator to work out my conviction is spent.
However, I am on the SOR and have an SHPO for a duration which will be longer than that.
My Q: Is it still spent when the calculator says or will it not be spent until the SOR and SHPO are finished?

RE: Spent/Unspent

AB2014 — Tue, 21 Mar 2017 13:21:30 GMT

[quote]

[b]Ab123 - 13 Mar 17 11:52 PM[/b]

Can you explain here what it is mean?

What is different between Spent and Unspent?
I still can apply the job if I am still on spent and unspent?
Thank you

[/quote]