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For people with criminal records
For people with criminal records

Story Type: Successes

It took prison to help get my gambling addiction under control

Gambling, like alcohol, is a legal vice; for most people, it doesn’t cause a problem. However, for some, gambling can become a destructive addiction that destroys their lives. That’s the experience that Max had. 

 

For the last 8 years of my life I have suffered with a serious gambling addiction. It started when I was just 19 and at university. I was so excited to be going to university and for me it was the start of a new chapter in my life, the start of an exciting future – to study sport and exercise science and become a teacher.  

Not long after starting uni, I made the fatal decision to go to a casino one night with friends. At that time, it was just a social thing and I couldn’t have predicted what would happen next. I can still picture that first time in the casino, flashing lights, pound signs everywhere and the feeling of excitement at the thought of winning some money. Sadly, I did win and without knowing it, I’d started to fall into a dark and dangerous trap. It seemed such as easy way to make money and, as a student, some easy money felt too good to be true – that’s just what it was.  

Skip forward several months and I’d joined multiple sports betting sites, betting on multiple sports every day, throwing away my student loan, lying to my parents and eventually dropping out of university. Luckily my family supported me and I was given a second chance by the university to complete my degree. I was confident that I’d put the gambling behind me.   

During the summer holidays I started speaking to a girl online; she actually lived just down the road from the university and was due to be starting there after the summer holidays. She was the most beautiful girl I’d ever set eyes on. I remember staring at her profile photos and thinking that she couldn’t possibly be real; that someone like me wouldn’t get to be with someone like her. When I eventually met her, it was love at first sight; the first and last time I’d ever felt like that. I started imagining a future with her, kids the lot.   

But it wasn’t long before I was gambling again even though I was the happiest guy ever with this amazing girl. Instead of spending time with her I’d be spending more and more time in the toilet on my phone gambling. I started to become more and more miserable around her, always wanting to drink after the stress of a big loss, cheating on her, telling constant lies – all because of my gambling.   

My behaviour eventually ruined her. I turned her into some sort of psycho with no trust whatsoever, to the point where even my parents hated her but, this was only because of who I’d made her, she was unrecognisable from the girl I first met and fell for.  

Aged 21 I’d broken up with my girlfriend and left university again but somehow managed to get myself a job as a teaching assistant. I was really excited that I’d been given this opportunity and kept telling myself how lucky I was that I could give up the gambling before I’d got in too deep. Less than a year later I started focusing on the gambling again, if I lost I got depressed and just wanted to stay in bed rather than go to work – no employer was going to put up with that so I was sacked. I was still lying to my parents about my work and I even used money from my grans will to gamble. I’ll never forget coming home one day with my mum screaming at me to stop gambling, all the time crying her eyes out.  

You’d have thought that would be enough to make me stop wouldn’t you but I just kept being given one chance after another. I managed to find myself a job as a supervisor in a souvenir shop, it wasn’t the best job but I was relatively happy, the money was OK and I got on well with all my work colleagues. I’d also got back in touch with some of my old school friends who I’d lost contact with. So life was relatively good at this point. But: 

I was still gambling and it was getting worse.  

I’d get paid in cash every Saturday and straight away I’d pay my wages into the bank on my lunch break, deposit it to my sports betting account and then I’d be in the stock room hiding behind cardboard boxes following the events that I’d just bet on. Most of the time I would have lost all my wages before my shift was even over. I used to go from being happy and excited to suddenly feeling sick . I would punch the boxes in the stockroom to get my anger out – it was that or cry.   

So, what happened next. Well today, I’m writing my story from a prison cell!!! I’ve received an 8-month sentence for fraud.  

I’d been given so many second chances and I blew them all but I knew after I’d been arrested and charged that I wasn’t going to be able to get out of this one. I couldn’t bear the thought that I was going to go to prison, and every night I’d go to bed crying my eyes out and writing in my head my last letter to my family.  I googled ways to commit suicide multiple times but the thing that stopped me was the hurt I was going to cause my family. I knew I couldn’t do it, couldn’t be that selfish. 

But, back to my cell. I’m about to start yet another job (a prison job this time) – another opportunity to turn my life around.  

I’ve been in prison about a month now and I’m the happiest, most confident and positive person in the world. I’ve been helped by an amazing book that I took out of the prison library to do with overcoming a gambling addiction, as well as a course that I’ve been doing since being here.  

I’m writing this today because for the first time I believe I am no longer addicted. Of course, it will be harder on the outside but I believe that thanks to prison I’ll be able to beat it. Prison is the best thing that’s happened to me. It saved my life and my family and I can’t wait to prove all of this to anyone who doubts me.  

I’m looking forward to the future. I’m dreaming and believing again. I believe I will have a dream job –  maybe as some kind of support worker. I believe I will find that ONE amazing woman with whom I can have children. I’ve got a wonderful family and I know that not everybody is as lucky as I am, so I hope that my story will help others before it’s too late. I was told by the police officer that arrested me that my gambling addiction was one of the worst she’d seen so if I can beat this then I promise you, anybody can.   

By Max (name changed to protect identity)

 

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Google, you know my name but don’t judge me when you don’t know my story

Having overcome the impact of his criminal record from 25 years ago, Nick was devastated to find that links to his name (and his conviction) had been made available on an internet archive site. Read about his efforts to get the links to his name removed.

 

 

25 years ago I received a conviction which resulted in a 3 line article in a local newspaper. 

The conviction resulted in a community order which I completed as soon as I could and since then, I’ve worked hard and done well career wise. As it was so long ago, very few people other than my immediate family know about it and I’m sure that many who know me now would be shocked to learn that I have a criminal record.  

I was therefore horrified to discover last year that these 3 lines of print had suddenly reappeared online on an internet archive site.  

Like a lot of people with a criminal record, the experiences you’ve had never quite leave you and I became totally stressed out about the consequences of this becoming known to family, friends and colleagues. I have a very unique surname and I knew that if anybody googled me, then this article would come up straightaway.  

I didn’t believe that my conviction was ‘still of public interest’ and I started to hope that it might fall under the category of “right to be forgotten”. I did a lot of research and eventually discovered that I could apply to Google to have the links to my name removed which I did.  

Google came back to me very quickly, to tell me that in their opinion, my story was still in the public interest. I was distraught, not least because the article relating to me was now even nearer the top of page 1 in the google search.  

I was sure that if my employers found the article (or somebody told them about it) then they’d dismiss me immediately, just on the grounds of reputational harm. As much as I told myself this wouldn’t happen, the effect it was having on my mental health was frightening. I couldn’t believe that a private company like Google could take it upon themselves to be the ‘judge and jury’ of what constitutes public interest.  

I started to investigate the cost of involving a solicitor but found that they often couldn’t give me any idea of my chances of success but wanted to charge me an exhorbitant amount of money. One really helpful company that I spoke to suggested that I could try making a complaint to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) which is what I did next.  

As I waited for a response from the ICO, I started to think back to when I’d originally applied for my job. I couldn’t remember whether I’d been asked about my conviction but if I had, I knew that I hadn’t disclosed it. I was worried that it might have been unspent at that time and that I should have told my boss. Further anxiety followed until I found out for sure that my conviction had been spent when I’d applied for my job and so I’d done nothing wrong in not disclosing. 

It took the ICO quite a while to get back to me – they seem very busy dealing with similar cases to my own. However, I eventually got the news I wanted, the ICO had found in my favour and asked Google to de-list the search results. The following day I received an email from Google telling me that they’d  

Reviewed my case and would de-list the search results in the UK and EU”

I’m delighted with the result but can’t believe that 25 years on I’ve had to deal with this all over again. I worry that individuals being convicted now are so exposed to the internet and social media and that companies carry out google searches as a way of informally checking someone’s record.  

At the time that I was seeking help, I was worried that I was going to loose my job so I was careful about every pound I spent. Some of the solicitors I spoke to were giving me quotes of £5,000 to deal with my case with very little certainty that they’d get any kind of result; this just wasn’t financially viable for me.  However, as my story demonstrates, you don’t need a solicitor to help you, with a bit of time and patience you can do it yourself. My advice to anybody affected like this is to apply to Google and if that doesn’t get a positive result take it to the ICO.   

By Nick (name changed to protect identity)

 

Comment from Unlock

In April 2018 the High Court ruled on two cases involving individuals with spent convictions that brought claims against Google for refusing to de-list search engine results.

If an application you’ve made to Google has been refused then there are possible legal remedies – further information can be found here.

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Travelling to Thailand with a criminal record – You just Thai and stop me!

Although Albert had visited Thailand many times since his conviction, research on the internet convinced him that changes in immigration policy would make it impossible for him to visit again.

 

Approximately 35 years ago I was convicted of a sexual offence and received a suspended prison sentence. The details of the offence are not really relevant to the story and I’m mindful that when you put something in writing it can look as though you’re trying to minimise what happened – I don’t want to do that. All I will say is that my life now is very, very different to how it was at the time of my conviction.

I’ve been married to my second wife for over 25 years and although she’s originally from Thailand, she’d been living and working in the UK for several years when I met her. I told her all about my conviction as soon as I realised that things were getting serious between us and thankfully, she understood that it was a one-off incident which still caused me tremendous shame and guilt.

My wife and my grown-up children from my first marriage get on extremely well and so my wife booked a holiday for all of us to visit her family in Thailand. My wife and I have visited the country many times since we married, the last time was in 2015, and I’ve never had any problems. However, since she’d booked the holiday, I started to read lots of articles online about how Thai Border Control had invested in new high-tech equipment just so they could keep sex offenders out of the country.

The more I read, the more worried I became. I’d convinced myself that I’d be stopped by immigration as soon as I landed and would be immediately deported back to the UK; this would be devastating for my wife and children. The worry was with me constantly; I wasn’t sleeping or eating, and I felt sick all the time. My anxiety was compounded by the fact that I’d never told my children about my conviction – as it had happened when they were just babies, it was something I didn’t think I needed to tell them.

My wife kept asking me what was wrong, but I didn’t have the courage to tell her about the tough new laws in Thailand. She was looking forward to seeing her family so much and we’d saved so hard for all the family to travel. I couldn’t bear for my family to see me being carted off by immigration after I’d had my face scanned and fingerprints taken and I started to think that I’d just have to make some excuse and stay at home whilst my wife and children travelled on their own.

I decided to have one last look online before I told my family that I couldn’t go with them, when I came across a helpline for people with convictions and decided to give them a ring. A wonderful guy listened to me and eventually said:

No need to panic, the situation’s the same as the last time you visited”.

He told me that I didn’t need a visa to travel to Thailand if I was going to stay for less than 30 days. He told me that what I’d read online about people being deported generally related to those who were on the Sex Offenders Register and who’d had their passports flagged by the police. As my conviction was prior to the introduction of the register and as I didn’t need to inform the police of my intention to travel, there was no way that any flag would be put on my passport. Therefore, nobody in either the UK or Thailand would be aware of my criminal record.

I can’t tell you the difference this information has made to my life and I’m so excited about my trip. However, I’m so sad that as a result of these tough new immigration rules, so many people will think twice about visiting ( or indeed be denied entry to) a country which has some breath-taking islands with wonderful beaches, great food and amazing festivals.

By Albert (name changed to protect identity)

 

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The smartest thing I’ve learnt since my conviction is that I don’t need a man to be successful

Lisa is the first to admit that although she didn’t set out to break the law herself, she was happy to turn a blind eye to what her husband was involved in. Her time in prison made her realise that she was a stronger person than she’d thought she was and, her success has been even sweeter because she’s achieved it on her own.

 

When I left school at the age of 18, I suppose I would have been described as a bit ‘geeky’ or naive. I’d never had a boyfriend, didn’t smoke or drink and thought ‘weed’ was just something that grew in the garden.

Although I’d taken a few GCE’s, I hadn’t thought about going to college or university. I just wanted a job to tied me over until I got married and had babies.

My lack of experience with men meant that I fell for the first guy I met. He was an insurance broker at the company where I was a secretary. We were married after 6 months and had two children within 3 years. Had we taken longer to get to know each other we would have realised that we weren’t that well suited; neither of us were happy in the marriage and before long the verbal and physical abuse started.

It took me a while to pluck up the courage to leave but I did, taking my children to live with my parents. Over the next few years, I had a succession of relationships with unsuitable men; one was an alcoholic, one was married and one constantly cheated on me and was always borrowing money he never paid back.

Then around 2002, I met Ian. He was nothing like anybody I’d ever met – kind, considerate, a non-smoker and teetotal. He had his own business, own house, brand new car and he spoilt me and the kids rotten.

When he asked me to marry him and the children and I moved in with him, I thought I’d met my sole-mate. Before long, I started working with him in his property business – it seemed a sensible thing to do; I wanted to earn my own money and he wanted a business partner.

It was only after I’d started working with him that I realised that some of his business dealings were not as ethical or legal as they should be. When I challenged him about them he convinced me that there were loopholes in the law which all businesses benefited from. If I’m honest, I knew what he was doing was wrong but life was good and I didn’t want to rock the boat.

When he set up another company solely in my name, I thought it was odd but he convinced me that it was just for tax purposes. What he meant was – it was a tax dodge.

I won’t go into too much detail but needless to say, it didn’t end well. Ian (and I) had become part of a huge fraud, Ian was a totally willing participant and although I didn’t know what was going on, I can’t say that I was an innocent bystander. I chose to ignore the warning signs for the sake of a good life.

When the case got to court, we both received long prison sentences (8 years each). The final day in court was the last time I saw Ian; as far as I was concerned I was done with men, I had no plans to get involved with one ever again.

Whilst I was in prison I was left in no doubt that finding work with a fraud conviction would be difficult. I took advantage of every employability course I could and signed up for self-employment and business funding programmes. During the last year of my prison sentence I was able to go to an open prison and I got myself an admin job working for a media company. Sadly it wasn’t something that I was able to continue with on release as it was too far from home.

As it got nearer to my release date I concentrated on building up a network of contacts. They all knew my background and the work I’d been doing both inside the prison and out. I sent my CV to as many of these contacts as I could, confident that I stood more chance of getting a job with one of these than an employer who knew nothing about me.

I’m pleased to say that the time and effort paid off and I was invited to four or five interviews which resulted in two job offers which I had to choose between. The job I picked didn’t pay the most but on balance, I thought it had better career prospects and would also give me the opportunity to utilise some of the marketing skills I’d learnt at the media company. That’s a complete change of mindset to how I’d been prior to prison; previously I’d definitely have gone for the job with the most money but after living on £10 a week your priorities do change.

In the short time I’ve been working, I’ve been given a promotion and a small pay rise and, at my recent appraisal, it was agreed that my employer would fund a marketing course for me. I really feel that I’m making a valuable contribution to my employer’s business and my ideas and suggestions are really taken seriously. Life’s better than it’s ever been before and importantly, I’ve achieved it without any help from a man.

By Lisa (name changed to protect identity)

 

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Forgiveness won’t change the past but it has improved my future – why I wasn’t added to the DBS barred list

They say it takes a strong person to say sorry, and an even stronger person to forgive. That’s certainly true in the case of Kostas and his family.

 

Prior to my conviction in 2002, I was a law-abiding citizen with an impeccable record. I’d been in the same job for 20 years and also volunteered for several charities in my spare time.

Other than my work and charity interests, my only other focus was my wife and children. I was really proud of my children, they worked hard at school and I encouraged them to do everything they could to reach their full potential. So, when one of my daughters made the decision to leave home and I later found out that she’d secretly married her boyfriend, I was in total shock.

Her behaviour was so out of character that I struggled to comprehend what had made her take the course of action she had. I went to see her new husband’s family; I thought that together we could try to get the couple to see sense. I thought they were too young to get married and I wanted my daughter to come home. However, they didn’t want to get involved.

News of my daughters marriage started to spread through my local community, and I was approached by several gentlemen who all had their own issues with my new son-in-law. They offered to help me bring my daughter home. Every night I’d see the strain on my wife’s face so worried was she about my daughter’s safety and well-being. We both felt totally helpless and unfortunately, I allowed myself to be influenced by these gentlemen.

This lack of judgement saw me convicted of conspiracy to murder my son-in-law and sentenced to time in prison.

During my time in custody, I was able to reflect on my actions and the impact it had on my daughter and son-in-law; I totally regretted what I’d done. I knuckled down and served my sentence, completing various courses and offering support and help to other prisoners who were struggling to come to terms with their sentence.

In that time, I worked hard to try and rebuild my relationship with my daughter, her husband and his family. I’m pleased to say that I now have an excellent relationship with them all and I’ve become a devoted grandfather as well. I recognise how fortunate I am that I’ve been allowed back into the family fold.

One of the downsides of my conviction is the difficulty I’ve had in finding a job. I’ve not been able to go back to my previous career and the nature of my offence makes a lot of employers deem me to be too much of a risk. After a lot of research, I made the decision to apply for a taxi licence and sent all my forms off to the local council.

Soon after I’d submitted my application I received a letter from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) informing me that they were considering putting me on the barred list. I knew that if I was barred I’d never be able to get my taxi licence and so the only thing I could do was to write to the DBS putting forward the reason why I didn’t think they should bar me.

I drafted my letter to the DBS and asked my daughter to have a read through it and let me have her thoughts (she’s really good at things like that). She gave me some valuable feedback about how I could improve my letter but the most surprising suggestion she made was to tell me that her husband (my victim) would be happy to write a letter of support!! Two families have been hugely impacted by my actions and I’ll never under-estimate the severity of what I did. The fact that my son-in-law was prepared to help me just shows how far we’ve come in rebuilding our relationship.

Not long after sending my letter to the DBS I received their response confirming that they wouldn’t be putting me on the barred list. It’s fantastic that they’ve reached this decision and I’m now just waiting for my licence to be issued.

By Kostas (name changed to protect identity)

 

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The inconsistencies of travelling when you have a sexual offence

Individuals convicted of sexual offences often have to deal with other people’s discriminatory and judgemental behaviour and it’s easy to believe that this is how they will be treated by everyone. Bruno’s story demonstrates the very different attitudes of staff working for the immigration authorities.

 

I was convicted of a sexual offence and currently have to sign the Sex Offenders Register. I believe my conviction was harsh, but I’ve accepted it and understand that every year I’ll have to sign the register and when I want to go abroad, I’ll have to inform the police.

Recently, my wife and I decided to go to France for a few days so, well in advance, as per registration rules, I informed my local police station. We travelled out via the Euro-tunnel, a journey which proved to be extremely stressful. We got through the British border with no problem at all but, when it came to the French border things were quite different.

Initially, we were told to pull over and wait. After about 40 minutes, two British police officers arrived – a male and a female. They asked to see my passport and started to question me about where we were going before walking away taking my documents with them. Another 10 minutes passed before the female officer came over to me and asked me whether I had a phone. When I said ‘Yes’ she asked to see it. She then asked me whether it had internet access and again, I said ‘Yes’. Looking at me in disgust, she called over her colleague before telling me that she’d have to take my phone away as I wasn’t allowed to have internet access.

I politely advised her that I thought she was wrong and went on to explain the full terms of my SOPO – basically that I was allowed internet enabled devices as long as I made them available to the police whenever they asked to see them. I could tell she wasn’t happy that I was disagreeing with her and she told me to wait while she went away to check. Her colleague stayed with me and was quite chatty and personable. He said that he thought there’d been a mistake, that I shouldn’t be denied internet access and not to worry.

Eventually the female officer came back and rather than apologise she said:

You’re right. Let me have your IMEI number and then you can go”.

This really wasn’t a great start to our trip and it really infuriated my wife. She wasn’t angry with me, but at the attitude of the female police officer and the delay that it had caused us.

As you can imagine, we were both dreading the trip home but it couldn’t have been more different. The border officer pulled us over and then asked me to get out of the car and open the boot. He didn’t look in the boot at all but did ask me some basic questions “Where have you been?” “Who are you travelling with?” He went on to say that he had to ask these questions but didn’t want to draw attention to me and thought it would be better to make it look like a random check. He wished me a safe journey and sent me on my way – a refreshing attitude!

Travelling whilst you’re on the register can be daunting and your experience will be made worse if you come across an official who shows you very little respect or is unclear about the responsibilities of their job. However, I’ve seen that there are some good guys who’ll be professional and treat you well. After our initial blip my wife and I had a great trip and we’d have no hesitation in travelling to France again.

Due to the nature of my offence, I’ve been left to deal with all sorts of problems and it’s taken me a little while to accept that I can’t change what happened in the past. For the sake of my family and friends, I try not to dwell on it and accept that in terms of other people’s attitudes, you just have to take the rough with the smooth – I feel a lot better for that.

By Bruno (name changed to protect identity)

 

Comment from Unlock

The Schengen Information System (SISII) is a European database that passes real time information from one participating country to another in the form of alerts relating to people or property. SISII alerts hold no prohibitions or punishments and the presence of an alert like this doesn’t require the Schengen country to refuse entry – this is a decision for the individual country to make as part of their own immigration policy.

Bruno was quite right to question why the police officer wanted to ‘confiscate’ his telephone. He was able to have in his possession internet enabled devices but even if he wasn’t allowed them, there would have been nothing on the SISII alert which detailed this prohibition.

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Volunteers Week 2019 – A shout out to Unlock’s volunteers

Volunteer Week is celebrated between 1st and 7th June every year. It’s a week in which the UK celebrates volunteers and says thank you to them for the contribution they make. The week hopefully also raises awareness of the benefits of volunteering.

As well as helping others, volunteering has been shown to have a positive impact on the lives of those who volunteer, assisting individuals to gain new skills and boost their self-esteem.

Volunteers are essential to the delivery of the support Unlock provides, and the skills and passion of our volunteers means that a small organisation like ours can make a significant impact given our size.

As Unlock’s advice manager, one of the most rewarding parts of my job is having the privilege of working with an amazingly diverse and talented group of people. I spend my time ensuring that our volunteers are happy, well-trained and feel supported in their roles whilst developing skills that will be useful to them outside of Unlock – hopefully they’d agree that’s what I do.

In 2018/19, our office-based volunteers gave 4,229 hours of their time to provide information, advice and support to people with convictions; they responded to 70% of the enquiries that our helpline received. Our team of home-based volunteers have carried out a wide range of research and content writing tasks. Their ability to convey information in a clear, concise and logical way combined with their IT and digital skills has been invaluable to us.

What do our volunteers say:

Since volunteering at Unlock I’ve become more confident about discussing my convictions. There’s no way that I’m going to keep letting my past affect my future opportunities” – Tianna

 

Sadly I had to leave Unlock last year when I moved out of Kent. When I was recently invited to an interview for a totally amazing job, I rang Debbie for some interview tips. When I was offered the job a couple of weeks later, I called her again for a reference. It means so much to know that I can keep in touch and they’ve got my back. I’ve got so many stories to tell about my time at Unlock which makes it easier to forget the bad times” – Louise

 

Before coming to Unlock, I was in a very dark place. Getting up each morning gave my life structure and purpose and meant that I could focus on something other than my own problems. Unlock literally saved my life” – Peter

A big thank you from Unlock

 

Want to give volunteering a try?

Have you been inspired by Volunteers Week? Find out more about the current volunteer vacancies at Unlock.

My life behind bars – from prisoner to bar owner

David Gauke has made it clear that he doesn’t believe that prison sentences of less than 12 months rehabilitate individuals and should only be used as a last resort. Malcolm is certain that despite having served lots of short sentences, he only started to turn his life around after he’d received one for 6 years.

 

When you’ve been in and out of prison as many times as I have (I only received short sentences), you’re always going to find it hard to find a job. When you’re 17 stone, over 6ft tall and have an arm full of tattoos – well you’re just living up to some people’s image of a criminal.

My last sentence was the longest I’d done, 6 years for a drug offence. I’ve never taken drugs myself; I’d always thought it was a bit of a mugs game to be honest but,when I found myself with no job, struggling to find somewhere affordable to live, the offer of some easy money was too good to resist. Of course, there’s no such thing as easy money and I’ve had to live with the consequences of that decision ever since.

The only good thing to come out of my last sentence was the fact that I got the chance to go to an open prison. From there, I had the opportunity to do some voluntary work and then managed to get a paid job working for a food preparation company. Although I love food, my only experience had been in the eating and not the making so this was a totally new experience for me. However, I loved the job and was always willing to work overtime or cover for colleagues if they needed time off.

As the time to leave prison drew closer, I started to give some thought to what the future might hold for me. I knew that my job was safe but I started to look at possible training courses. I didn’t think that I wanted to train to be a chef but considered that a career in management might be more my type of thing.

I signed up to do a qualification in Kitchen Management, well supported by my employers. I passed with flying colours but the best thing to come out of the course was meeting a guy called Charlie F. Charlie was working for a large pub chain as a manager and we ended up having lunch together most days. Before the course had finished, he’d convinced me to apply for a job as a trainee pub manager.

I never thought for one minute that I’d get an interview so I put off applying for another 9 months. However, to my surprise I smashed the interview and was offered a trainee management role. I did loads more training and within 4 months I had my own pub in Yorkshire. The hours were long but I loved meeting and talking to the customers; I even learnt to become a lot more tolerant of the more challenging customers, although to be honest nobody really wanted to mess with a 17 stone guy like me.

One of the benefits of managing a pub is that you get very little time to go out or spend money. You live in a pub, paying minimal rent and so for many people you can build up some substantial savings which is exactly what I did.

So now, I can begin the next part of my journey which is the opening of my own cocktail bar. This is no ordinary bar however, we’re going to be using local spirits, tonics and sodas and our drinks will be inspired by some of the herbs and flowers grown in our own garden. For a ‘bit of a lad’ like me, I bet your struggling to get your head around that. For me, it’s an ideal opportunity to experiment with flavours whilst combining this with my love of booze (only joking). I’m working with a much more discerning clientele these days who probably view me as a ‘loveable rogue’ rather than just a ‘thug’.

I’ve worked hard for what I have but I was given a lot of opportunities by people who were prepared to give me a second chance; I can’t thank them enough. I’ve always tried to do the same in my business and I’ve employed lots of people with criminal records. I’ve never been let down by any of them. My life is very different now – albeit, I’m still behind bars!

By Malcolm (name changed to protect identity)

 

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My caution is still showing on my check but so far it’s not held me back

Due to the nature of her offence, Jazmin’s caution for affray isn’t currently eligible for filtering. Although it hasn’t stopped her from achieving her goal to be a teacher, she does still find it difficult to talk about her experience and the circumstances surrounding her caution. 

 

Almost ten years ago, I was in the last year of university and had received a teacher training placement to start later in the year.

Not long after getting my placement, I was out one evening with my partner when we got into an argument and he ended up head butting me in the face and knocked me to the floor. I was so shocked that when I got up, I started to fight back when suddenly the police were there and we were both arrested.

The police were sure that this was a case of domestic violence and tried to get me to press charges. I loved my partner and this was just a one-off incident, so I refused. The police took the decision to caution us both for affray. I was distraught and just wanted to get away from the police station to I accepted the caution without fully understanding the implications of doing so.

The next day, I phoned the university and explained the situation to them, fully expecting to be dismissed from the course. The administrator was extremely kind and asked me to come in to discuss the matter with the head teacher. I was so ashamed and really struggled to admit the fact that my partner had assaulted me.

Thankfully, the head teacher allowed me to stay on the course and I qualified the following year. Sadly over time, the abuse from my partner escalated and I finally managed to get the courage to leave him.

I’ve been teaching for ten years now and worked in four schools. With every job I applied for I had to disclose the caution and re-tell my story. So far, every head teacher has been very understanding and I’m grateful that the very first one took a chance on me.

The fact that I’ve now been teaching for so long works in my favour and the fact that I’ve been successfully employed in schools despite this mark on my record sets a precedent. I hate that this horrible point in my life will dog me for my entire career, and every time I’m asked about it the shame and embarrassment hangs over me for weeks.

I was naive about cautions when I accepted one and I hope that one day cases like mine will be given due consideration for removal. In the meantime, I hope to raise awareness and education about cautions, particularly when domestic violence and partner abuse is involved.

My advice to anyone thinking that a caution may stop you is to swallow your pride, be honest and apply anyway.

By Jazmin (name changed to protect identity)

 

Comment from Unlock

Despite Jazmin’s previous experience of disclosure being very positive, there is little doubt that she still finds it embarrassing to talk about. The incident which led to Jazmin’s caution was approximately 10 years ago and since then, she has forged a successful career as a teacher. For many women like Jazmin, disclosure is not just about having potential employers view them as a ‘criminal’ but also about being seen as a ‘victim’.

The judges in the Supreme Court case around filtering broadly agreed that some violent offences ‘may be’ considered a serious offence and should continue to be disclosed. Unlock will continue to challenge all aspects of the filtering criteria.

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  • Comment – Let us know your thoughts on this post by commenting below
  • Information – We have practical self-help information on filtering
  • Discuss this issue – There are some interesting discussions related to filtering on our online forum
  • Our policy work – Read about the policy work we’re doing on this issue.

Home sweet home – successfully appealing a Council’s decision to take a spent conviction into account

Laura couldn’t understand how her son could be removed from the Council’s housing list after accidentally disclosing his spent convictions. However, the lack of understanding around spent/unspent convictions by Council staff surprised her even more.

 

My son Roman was aged 22 when he applied for and was accepted onto the housing register. After a year of bidding for a property, he was delighted to be offered a flat. On the day that he went along to view it with a member of staff from the Council, he was asked:

Do you have a criminal record?”

The question really confused him. If he took it literally then he’d have to answer ‘Yes’. However, his convictions were spent and so legally he didn’t need to disclose and could answer ‘No’. Assuming that the Council must be allowed to ask the question, he decided to be honest and said ‘Yes’.

Two weeks later, he received a letter from the Council stating that he was being removed from the housing list as he’d failed to declare his convictions on his original application form. He was absolutely distraught.

I was furious that the Council had asked Roman such a misleading question and that they’d not taken the time to find out more about what he’d disclosed before they decided to remove him from the housing list. I telephoned the Council and explained to one of the members of staff that as Roman’s convictions were spent, there had been no need for him to disclose them when he filled in the original application form. I was bluntly told that if we wanted to appeal the decision, we’d have to follow the appeals process. So that’s what we did.

I spent hours looking up Roman’s legal rights and found that just as I’d thought, spent convictions didn’t need to be disclosed in order to be added to a housing register. I also found a ruling from the High Court in London from a case in 2016 which I quoted in the appeal.

The Council had 42 days to reply to our appeal and during that time I rang the Housing Officer to try to find out how the appeal was going. I can’t tell you how shocked I was when he told me that the Council had obtained Roman’s criminal records from the police (without our consent) which went back to when he was 13 or 14 years old. Although the police had listed every arrest and conviction, they hadn’t set out whether they were spent or not – so not a lot of help at all. This meant that we had to wait even longer for the Council to yet again contact the police to confirm whether the convictions were indeed spent.

The police confirmed that Roman’s convictions were spent and ultimately we won the appeal. Although he was reinstated onto the housing register, the flat that he’d set his heart on had been allocated to someone else.

I understand that the Council has a criteria to follow when somebody applies to join the housing register. What I find hard to believe is how the Council did not understand the law around spent/unspent convictions; practically everybody I spoke to who worked in the housing department had no idea what I was even talking about. If they’d been trained properly, it would have saved so much time and Roman would now be living in the flat he wanted to live in.

The impact of this has caused the whole family so much unnecessary stress but at least Roman had our help and support. Not everybody has this and I wonder how many people in the same situation would just have accepted what the Council said and took it no further.

Roman is bidding for property once again and hopefully it won’t be too long before he finds a new home.

By Laura (name changed to protect identity)

 

A comment from Unlock

There are generally long waiting lists for social housing due to a lack of housing stock. This is a rising problem and people with convictions can be more badly affected, often due to their not being able to demonstrate a local connection to one particular area.

Council’s and housing associations shouldn’t be asking housing applicants about spent convictions and, where these are disclosed in error, they should be disregarded. If you believe that you’ve been discriminated against because of your spent conviction then like Laura, we’d always advise you to appeal the decision.

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  • Comment – Let us know your thoughts on this post by commenting below
  • Information – We have practical self-help information on housing
  • Discuss this issue – There are some interesting discussions related to housing on our online forum.

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