Hi everyone,

Just looking for some advice.

My fraud conviction was over 10 years ago (2 years suspended sentence) however still seems to haunt me all these years later.

Even though it is now well spent, I live in constant fear that someone will find out.

I have a unique name and despite a successful Google removal challenge, every so often an old article will appear if I search.

Every financial application I make fills me with dread. It just brings everything back.

I have had my own online company with my partner for a number of years, and I have went at great lengths to keep my name under wraps, even though I am listed as a director.

However, I cannot shake this constant feeling of looking over my shoulder.

I had previously considered a name change, however I am scared that banks will wonder why I am doing it.

Would it be a red flag to a financial institution, if a male wished to change his name? Would this lead to further scrutiny or checks? Obviously females regularly change their name due to marriage, but males not so much.

I cannot risk my business account being closed down. 

My thought had been to use my mothers maiden name as I do not particularly see eye to eye with my father anyway.

Doe anyone have an opinion or any thought on this?

I do tend to overthink things, so I am unsure if this is what is happening here.

However, I feel that my name is still holding me back.

Many thanks,

Hey there,

I changed my name, slightly but in a way that didn't really involve having to update banks etc.

This might not be an option for you though but what I did was just change from my general name to my birth name - So think Chris becoming Christopher, John becoming Johnathan etc.
So it was still me but it also meant anyone that Googled Johnathan Smith would only find small tid bits about me which were fine and not related to my offence.

I already have a short 1st name, and it's not one that can be changed unfortunately.

Appreciate you taking the time to comment though

Hi
I changed mine after I had finished my licence period so in ways make my life easier.

I decided to change certain aspects of my name that I could use a sensible reason for doing so. this meant explaining it would be simple and plausible to anyone interested enough to ask. 
Remember the old line "keep things simple".

Yes individuals in our scenario are / will be over thinking all aspects especially after all the "noise" in parliament last year. Please try to ignore it.

Believe in your reasonings as you are only wanting to protect those close to you and yourself.



Society suggests I must let go of all my expectations but I disagree, as whilst I have a voice, I have hope.

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope is for tomorrow else what is left if you remove a mans hope.
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This forum supports these words, thank you Unlock and your contributors.

Thanks for your reply

Hi marcovanba

I do think it's likely that in this situation you are probably overthinking things somewhat - it is not nearly as uncommon as you might think for males to change their name - in certain cultures for example, the male partner in a marriage will often change his name. There are also many other completely valid reasons to change a name - adoption, being estranged from birth parents, or simply not liking your name even. There are no legal restrictions on changing your name.

In terms of what financial institutions might think, I wouldn't be worried about this. Financial institutions do not have the time to thoroughly investigate every single customer who changes their name, and even if they did, the financial institution would have no legal (DPA-compliant) way to find out about your spent conviction.

You don't have to give the bank a reason for changing your name. If it were me in this situation, I'd simply go ahead, get the deed poll, and take it directly into a bank branch and ask them to update your details. They might ask why you're changing your name, but I'd expect this would probably only be out of courtesy on the part of the employee dealing with you, to make conversation, rather than that information being stored anywhere. But in any event, you don't have to answer them - again, if it were me, I'd just give a very non-committal answer (say something like I work in a public-facing role and am concerned about my privacy). 

Anecdotally, I've heard from a few civil servants/other Government agency employees who have changed their names after leaving their service, so as to "disassociate" themselves from their previous public-facing role. Again, changing a name is not a particularly uncommon event, even for people who don't have a conviction.

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All views, opinions & contributions are my own and do not represent the views of Unlock unless specifically stated.

The most important things to remember are that your conviction will never be shown on a basic DBS check, and the information wouldn't have been kept by Cifas for longer than six years. Changing your name shouldn't affect DBS checks, as they ask for any previous names, but your conviction will always be shown on a standard or enhanced DBS check, so it's worth avoiding those. If you're worried about articles occasionally appearing online, you can always set a Google alert (ironic...) or the equivalent on a different service, so they will look on your behalf and tell you if they find anything. You can then get back to Google, quote their previous decision and ask them to remove links to the new article(s), which I'm told they do quite quickly, as they've already made the decision.

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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)

Thanks for taking the time to write all of that, it's made me feel better about the possibility

Thank you AB2014, appreciate it. I will set up a google alert. I only check every so often, got rid of most.

Anytime I find something new, google are quick to remove them