jj8172
Member
Hi All
I had court today, I had a reading of 70ug by breath, there were mitigating factors which were taken into account and I got 17 month ban and minimum fine. The magistrates were in fact quite sympathetic about the situation behind it all.
But.. something unusual.
After my guilty plea, the prosecutor read out circumstances, which were accurate, but then mentioned openly that in 2001 I was done for the same thing, and was banned for 36 months, that was a serious issue that one and was caused by medication interfering with alcohol. My understanding is that they cannot mention spent convictions in open court, but could inform the magistrates somehow. Have I been mis informed?
He did NOT say the conviction was spent either...
Seems to contradict what I have read about this, I was understandably worried they would use that against me, and they did. read up on this a bit, below...
The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974
Under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (the Act), an offender who is sentenced to a period of thirty months imprisonment or less, becomes 'rehabilitated' once a certain period of time specified by the Act has passed. This means that the offender is treated for all purposes in law as though they had not committed, or been charged or prosecuted or convicted of the offence.
Prosecutors should refer to the Act to ascertain whether offences on the record of a defendant come within its provisions. Since 8 December 2008, cautions, conditional cautions, reprimands and warnings are all subject to the provisions of the Act.
By virtue of Section 7(2)(a) of the 1974 Act rehabilitated or "spent" convictions are admissible in criminal proceedings where they are relevant to "the determination of any issue". This exception allows a sentencing court to have regard to all previous convictions including spent convictions in determining the appropriate sentence.
Rules about how spent convictions should be presented can be found in Criminal Procedure Rules Part 21 and CPD V Evidence 21A:
I had court today, I had a reading of 70ug by breath, there were mitigating factors which were taken into account and I got 17 month ban and minimum fine. The magistrates were in fact quite sympathetic about the situation behind it all.
But.. something unusual.
After my guilty plea, the prosecutor read out circumstances, which were accurate, but then mentioned openly that in 2001 I was done for the same thing, and was banned for 36 months, that was a serious issue that one and was caused by medication interfering with alcohol. My understanding is that they cannot mention spent convictions in open court, but could inform the magistrates somehow. Have I been mis informed?
He did NOT say the conviction was spent either...
Seems to contradict what I have read about this, I was understandably worried they would use that against me, and they did. read up on this a bit, below...
The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974
Under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (the Act), an offender who is sentenced to a period of thirty months imprisonment or less, becomes 'rehabilitated' once a certain period of time specified by the Act has passed. This means that the offender is treated for all purposes in law as though they had not committed, or been charged or prosecuted or convicted of the offence.
Prosecutors should refer to the Act to ascertain whether offences on the record of a defendant come within its provisions. Since 8 December 2008, cautions, conditional cautions, reprimands and warnings are all subject to the provisions of the Act.
By virtue of Section 7(2)(a) of the 1974 Act rehabilitated or "spent" convictions are admissible in criminal proceedings where they are relevant to "the determination of any issue". This exception allows a sentencing court to have regard to all previous convictions including spent convictions in determining the appropriate sentence.
Rules about how spent convictions should be presented can be found in Criminal Procedure Rules Part 21 and CPD V Evidence 21A:
- The record supplied should contain all previous convictions, but those which are spent should, so far as practicable, be marked as such;
- No one should refer in open court to a spent conviction without the authority of the judge, which authority should not be given unless the interests of justice so require;
- When passing sentence the judge should make no reference to a spent conviction unless it is necessary to do so for the purpose of explaining the sentence to be passed.
