Hello everyone, may I firstly thank the admin for allowingme to join the forum. I hope that the story and message that follows can beread discussed amongst likeminded individuals and offer some input into what Ihave to say. I’m hoping that widerdebate on this issue might highlight ideas for future solutions and help othersin the same situation.
An apology in advance as this is quite a lengthy story. Formany years, I have had a sibling with behavioural issues target me with acts ofmalice by means of using the police to issue false allegations against me. Thishas covered a period of a staggering fifteen years with me being arrested,quizzed and questioned. This in itself has been horrendous as these outlandish storiescovers harassment, criminal damage, threats to kill and sexual assault. All ofthese allegations were not taken on by the CPS and I was released on alloccasions by the police with no further action.
Running parallel to all of this chaos going on in the lateryears of this persons bombardment of malice, I had been studying for a degreeand have worked extremely hard to achieve a first class honours. The stress ofhaving to deal with the course and the insanity of the sibling nearly made medrop out at the end of the first year. Myphysical and mental state was terrible. I sought to get an injunction out onthis individual under the classification of a ‘non-molestation order’ whilst Iwas studying. The sibling had to sign an agreement never to pester or harass meany further and for now it has been quite for twelve months. I strove to not let this person affect my workand achieve my goals and that mindset got me over the finish line with mystudies. Unfortunately, this person’sinflicted nightmare has now taken another form which is what brings me to thisforum.
After (surprisingly) achieving a first class honours grade,a job opportunity has arisen within the university from where I studied. The job matches my skill set and would be anamazing opportunity to potentially join the ranks of the fellow academics andmove on with the next phase of my life. I filled out the application form and wherethe criminal record section requires you to declare any convictions. I listed theone (and only) conviction I actually have which is a section 5 public orderoffence from 15 years ago. I honestly had no issues in divulging thisinformation and it has no bearing or relevance to the person I am now. However,it is when I looked into the advanced elements of the DBS checks that can bedivulged by the Police that brought the nightmare of the past to the forefrontof my life once again.
The DBS check has not yet been undertaken but I would wagerthat the allegations from which I was arrested will undoubtedly be held on myrecord. This is the point where I have taken an active stance against the wholeprocedure and came to write in this forum. In my mind a criminal record is whatis created where a magistrate / judge has determined your guilt either throughyour own admission or evidence supplied to the courts. That information I amquite happy to divulge. I made my mistake, it’s spent and I’ve moved on. Thepublic order offence also actually came from me protesting against this same siblingfrom where an incident arose where I couldn’t contain my disgust against this individual.However, it is all the hearsay gossip and malicious entries on my record which let’sface it are far more potentially impacting for the recruitment officer to lookover in comparison to a stale public order offence right?
To my horror, I later find out that you can only challengethe DBS certificate but only after it’s been issued. This is ridiculous! I attributethis to no little to than every time I have an interview that I take my siblingto sit beside the recruitment officer as so they can steer their attention tothe lies of an extremely serious nature, rather than the facts. It also bodes the issue that if a maliciousperson knows how to mess with someone’s future, your enemy doesn’t necessarilyneed convictions to scuttle someone’s job opportunities. In my eyes a publicorder offence is small pickings when all someone needs is the ability to lieand a 75% statistical chance that an employer will discriminate. I know which chanceI would bet my future on.
Steps forward: I refuse to let this individual determine outcomesand events of my life. The law and legislation in DBS reporting still has along way to go. With the efforts I’m seeing Unlock undertake the time forchange in hopefully on the horizon. In the mean time, I have been researchinginto ways of trying to contain this inaccurate information and make efforts todo some pre-emptive damage control. Maybe one of you can offer better advicethan the road I wish to go down. I am now seeking to issue a Subject AccessRequest to the police and find out exactly what is held on my record. I am specifically looking for the allegationinformation as this is the most damaging.
I am hoping that if such damaging information is on therethat I can utilise either something under the Article 8 human rights of privacyof a family life (as this relates to a sibling) and possibly seek to have this dataremoved/ omitted or have the dataremoved completely which falls under Section 10 of the Data Protection Act as Iconsider this information not only inaccurate but disproportionally biased froma known enemy of mine which is causing distress beyond comprehension.
Over to you guys, I welcome your input.
Patrick