Hey Bunkernut,

You have a conviction, sadly there is nothing you can do about that. It, however, does not mean that you are unemployable, un-frieand-able or un-loveable. 
On the job-front you are totally employable - you just need to find a job that won't do a criminal record check. Think industries that have a high demand for labour etc. It doesn't have to be bad money either - I know of people earning up-to £20 per hour hand picking veg in fields (it is really hard work). Or, depending on your experience you could always start your own business. I have an  friend  that gave up a well-paid corporate job to start a baked potato nuisiness and he loves it!

The conviction will show up on a basic disclosure for 5 years. After that it will show up on a Standard or Enhansed check. It will always show up on a  PVG. Disclosure Scotland provides good advice here: https://www.mygov.scot/convictions-higher-disclosures/

If your case was reported in the press - change your name. Most employers seem to Google candidates.

1 year on the sex-offenders register is nothing. Again, it is in the past so just move on. You would not have been better off in jail - so put that out of your head.

There is support out there, but you will likely have to be reffered to it. If you are on Jobseekers - ask your advisor for: CV building, Disclosure advice and Job Searching. You may need to fight for it - but support is there.

What do you have positive in your life? Friends? Family? Pets? home? An education? Neighbours?

think about ways to fill your days. It is perfect weather to start a Couch2 5k program. Are there clubs or groups you can join?

I'll endorse all that Square said and add that you can ask the Job Centre to refer you to the National Careers Service for support. They are currently offering access to online courses: some of them are useful, some are interesting and there are others as well. I chose a course in Sage 50, but there are others in Microsoft Office and various lines of work that would probably look good on your CV.

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If you are to punish a man retributively you must injure him. If you are to reform him you must improve him. And men are not improved by injuries. (George Bernard Shaw)

Hi Bunkernut

Getting a job is difficult with an unspent conviction but not impossible. Some of it does depend on the type of conviction, for example when i was in my misguided youth i recieved a caution for posession of cannabis, which is a disclosable offence if you are asked about unspent convictions, i had no problems whatsoever getting a job back then, lets face it, whilst it is still illegal to posess cannabis it is widely seen today as more of a misdemeanor and is more socially acceptable than it was, not saying it's right but the attitude towards that kind of thing today is different.

Fast forward about 10 years and i was arrested for a much more serious offence which i wont go into detail here, however the nature of that offence whilst i didn't receive a custodial sentence is still hard for people to stomach and talk about so this made it very very difficult to obtain a job where by i would have to disclose. There are some offences unfortunately where no matter how much you can prove you have rehabilitated or how much remorse you show will almost always lead to a knee jerk reaction and a rejection from potential employers.

I have managed to make ends meet by simply going for jobs where they don't ask about unspent convictions due to the temporary nature of the work. Sub contracting or self employed is a good route since technically you don't really have an employer, just an agency that points you to where work is. That goes for construction, IT and maybe some engineering or maintainence type roles. 

You kind of have to re-think your whole life plan, but sometimes change can be a good thing. You have to be a bit creative about how you earn money so rather than think 'who can give me a job' ask 'what can i do that earns money' (Legally of course!)

It's not an offense for employers to take on people with unspent convictions unless it's a safeguarding issue for children or vulnerable people. The other option for employment if you don't want to do subcontracting, learn a new skill or be self employed is maybe find a small company or start up company where you get to speak to the actual decision maker rather than some HR minion and talk to them honestly, show humility and remorse and ask them for the opportunity to prove yourself, you might be lucky but that is going to take a lot of leg work, phone calls, emails. I would say from experience avoid recruitment agencies, they are extremely risk averse, they will say that having an unspent conviction doesn't exclude you from work opportunities but i have never got a job with an agency where they ask about unspent convictions. I knew someone who worked for a recruitment agency and i actually asked them about how they deal with candidates with unspent convictions, he said basically, they go in the bin because they are too risky to put forward incase something goes wrong that damages the reputation of the client or their company.  I will also add that the job centre wont be much help either, they are a bit more professional in dealing with you than the recruitment agencies but they don't really have a list of employers that recruit ex offenders and neither do they have a strategy in place for dealing with people who have convictions, every one is treated the same.

Good luck in your search for work

I agree with almost everything Thorswrath said, but I would like to point out that if you have a caution for anything, you don't have to disclose it if you are asked about unspent convictions, because cautions become spent immediately. They can be filtered after six years, depending on the offence, and that particular one would be filtered, so I'm not sure what you meant by it being disclosable.

I certainly agree with your views on prejudice and how they can interfere with, or prevent, rehabilitation. I think we all know which parts of the media we can thank for that....

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If you are to punish a man retributively you must injure him. If you are to reform him you must improve him. And men are not improved by injuries. (George Bernard Shaw)

Totally agree with you Thorswrath especially your point about recruitment agencies. Unless you're looking for temp work through an agency whereby the agency becomes your employer, then I'd always avoid disclosing to them. At the end of the day, all you want them to do is put you forward for an interview so that you get the opportunity to explain your conviction and what you've done since yourself. Sadly, once you've disclosed agencies are much less likely to put you forward even if you do have the necessary skills and experience.  The only exception would be those agencies who specialise in helping people with convictions.

If you've not come across them before, might be worth having a look at the Prosper-4-Group. They offer a digital jobs board specifically for people with convictions. 




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With regards to the caution, I had to disclose it back then as it was about 5 years in and the job dealt with very sensitive information about peoples health and equipment that was very very expensive, the company i worked for did a full background check on everyone. I don't believe i would get the same job again considering my more recent criminal record but you never know with companies. It was through an agency at first and from what i can remember, that agency didn't require the background check or even ask about unspent convictions but it was the medical company that did it. I think if you are going for any job these days which puts you infront of peoples sensitive data, most of the time you will have a full background check meaning enhanced DBS. Back then, not disclosing my caution and then later having it appear on the full background check would have been dishonest and it would have probably been the dishonesty that they would have rejected the job on as opposed to the actual offence itself.

I sympathise with your situation, but if that company requested that check now, the DBS's own online eligibility tool says they could only apply for a basic DBS check, which wouldn't show the caution. They might well still try to get an enhanced DBS check, but there are procedures for the job applicant to challenge that without getting their name involved.

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If you are to punish a man retributively you must injure him. If you are to reform him you must improve him. And men are not improved by injuries. (George Bernard Shaw)

Hi,

Sorry to hear you're struggling.

It's not easy, I have been in prison and completely agree that our system does not help or support employment for people after conviction, which you are right potentially push people to crime just to keep going. The system is sadly very short sighted.

Our employment market in the UK is flooded with very dubious recruitment agents that post jobs that don't exist to fish for CV's and who fail to reply when people apply, so its very demoralising, but also just hard to get at any real jobs.

Having a conviction is another blocker and issue in that already difficult system. My advice would be don't disclose until you are at the point of being offered a role. You should NOT lie, but telling random people at recruiters or in HR Dept upfront, I believe, is not helpful and could lead to potential discrimination. 

Firstly try to apply to organisations that you know are more open to people with convictions, you can find a list of friendly employers here https://cleansheet.org.uk/ the team there are lovely and once you have registered you can access a list of employers that the team at Clean Sheet have spoken to first. They will also help support you with applications too.

If you are asked about details of a conviction try saying that you are happy to discuss this after interview but would rather not disclose in advance. My experience with this process has not been easy, but you just have to keep going and keep strong. You have the ability to achieve remarkable things if you can be strong, get good support and value yourself and your skills. Don't let your conviction define you, even if it feels that others are doing that for you. 
 

A quick addition please note that TIMPSONS and VIRGIN won't employ people who are on the sex offenders register. It's wrong and unfair and I have argued this with them, but they simply, at this time, are not moving. They do work with people with other convictions though so there are positives there.

It will be interesting to see if anything comes from the MoJ's new Education and Employment Strategy. I'm sure nothing will happen in a hurry, but if/when they do something about it, that might make a difference. Meanwhile, we're stuck with things as they are.



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If you are to punish a man retributively you must injure him. If you are to reform him you must improve him. And men are not improved by injuries. (George Bernard Shaw)