Thread: Sacked, crb

HI All, I had been working for my company who are contractors for a local authoraty, fitting comunity alarms, i had been employed for 4 years in june of this year i was asked to fill in another crb form.
I was informed that my crb had come back with a spent conviction on it, I was asked where my crb certificate was for the previous years,

I explained that i took it for granted that all must have been ok i have worked here doing the same job working has a lone worker.
The company have terminated my employment on the grounds of cappability, saying i have failed a crb check.

I Failed to inform them of the spent conviction,the crb only requested unspent and was never asked about spent convictions,
My crime was going equipped to steal petrol, which carried a £50.00 fine.
I have never been in any kind of trouble since, it was 27 years ago.
I Work with vunreble adults, and have since been informed that all convictions need to be declared,
I was with unison, but they were no help whats so ever not even reading the case forms properly, and did not represent me very well,Risk assesment that was carried out on me had the offence down has aggrevated theft.

Hope some one can offer some advice, thnks in advance, Marjal

Was This An Enhanced Crb Check

it must have been, in order to show a 27 year old crime.

Did You Agree To This Check

Yes it was an enhanced check but so was the previus one that i filled in 4years ago, but there saying one was never carried out.

Originally Posted by k13 wjd

it must have been, in order to show a 27 year old crime.

Sorry, no.

It is an urban myth that spent convictions do not appear on a standard CRB disclosure.

The difference between standard and enhanced is that for the latter, any further information held by the Police may be added whether or not a conviction resulted.

Ive Asked This Before Pat

So Whats The Point On The Rehab Of Offenders Act Ref Spent Convictions And Disclosing Them

Thanks for all your help so far, just had my final conversation with unison,They have said there going no further with it, even so my employment was terminated on the grounds of capability,on the basis that you do not hold the necessary qualification to permit you to continue to be employed as the emergency link officer working unsupervised,company were saying i had failed to get crb clearance,I had argued that i had a crb but understood that it was how the company dealt with the disclosure, and expected them to consider that i had been doing this job alone,for the last 4 years and took the service into 3other boroughs,with only good reports, and that i had been of good character since the offence,being informed that i would have to be supervised made me feel angry, i loved my job and all the elderly people i felt that i had helped,Many thanks Marjal

Hi all, Just an update i contacted acas who have approched my company to see if i could be reinstated, but they have said no to my job back, but they would give me one months salary, and i would have to sign a declaration saying that i would not take it to a et, my question is have they admitted guilt by offering this payment,and should i just go ahed with the et, after all my life is now in pieces 4, years down the pan.
Many thanks Marjal

They always show "spent" convictions on CRB checks as well a Police Cautions (if related to offences against children). I wouldn't have thought a conviction that was 27 years old and related to a theft, would result in employment being terminated. This sounds a bit dodgy to me.

I am surprised that UNISON is not taking this further. This is so unfair IMO. I work in a school and a few people have old convictions, but we haven't sacked them. Why? Because they do not pose a risk to the children they work with.

Unison, did not help at all they have said its up to the company on how they treat the info on the crb, even so the 2 risk assesments was wrong, the 1st they said it was aggrevated theft, then at the final appeal they thought it was for burglary, it was going equipped to steal petrol, i was caught with a can and a tube, the funny thing is now days they fill the car and containers on the back seats, could total maybe £150.00 and then drive away without paying. I know what i did was wrong but do feel that i have been treated unfairly, and the crime has been blown out of porportion. 27,years ago im now 47, and have been of good character since, Marjal

Unison,i was represented by my local rep,he had terrrified me by telling me that i may be put on a list held by pova, i had no confidence in him and did try to get some help from some one above him, but all they said was that he was my local rep and had to carry on with him,I tried to explain that he did not understand and that i had to explain what a crb was to him,? I also asked for some legal assitance because time was running out and the termination date was nearing,my local office said all my case files had been transferd to my reginal office for them to assess my claim, on contacting them they said that all my files were with the local office and that on what they had been told they agreed with them that there was no case to answer, i stressed how i felt that they should at least have read my files before making that comment, after several phone calls with no replys,they did send me a letter saying that they will not be taking my case any further, They could not have read my case forms properly,They have my start date wrong,they have me down for a trial period that never occured,a disaplinary that was only an investigation,which was used against me in the risk assesments, and to top it all they have sacked me on cappability grounds,no mention of spent conviction, or crb on my final letter they said well if thats how the company wants to deal with thats up to them. I have since found out that my local rep was about to face some form of investigation so its not hard to see who,s side he was on. Thanks for all your replys, it has given me the courage to fight on with this. Marjal

Marjal, I can agree about Unison to an extent, my local rep - well, he means well, but really its me been telling him all along what the score is with my case, most of the info got from great pointers the experts on here have given me.

We now laugh about it - I get the correct up-to-date info, and pass it to him - we call this my "little snippets". However, when it comes to presenting a case to my employer, well, what can i say? Last week he made the Director of my place take three steps backwards very quickly - and my guy didn;t even get out of his chair!

If I were you, because you pay subs and have a right to be represented, I would write to the Head office and complain. I would also, whilst waiting for their reply, go straight to an employment solicitor about this and let them take the case for you, if you can do that. Anyways, at least you will have had another opinion from one who knows to hit back at Unison later. At the very least, for this poor level of service, you should ask for all your subs back.

Don't give up, I too have a police caution from 2005 on my enhanced CRB and its never stopped me working. I'd rather it wasn;t there, obviously, but I have found if you are honest and upfront about what its all about at interview, then a good employer will give you a chance. The other thing of course, you should challenge this with CRB, because as you rightly say, does anyone really care after 27 years that a 20 yr old got a fine for carrying a petrol can in the street? many, many people are affected by this, and it won't be until we all start shouting at those cases whicvh are genuinely unfair, that anything will change.

If I were you, I'd make a start on this today, by assisting your former employers to see the error of their ways - take them to the cleaners.

Good luck.

Originally Posted by marjal

Hi all, Just an update i contacted acas who have approched my company to see if i could be reinstated, but they have said no to my job back, but they would give me one months salary, and i would have to sign a declaration saying that i would not take it to a et, my question is have they admitted guilt by offering this payment,and should i just go ahed with the et, after all my life is now in pieces 4, years down the pan.
Many thanks Marjal

I have a great deal of sympathy for your position. You have either fallen foul of regulations that were never intended for this purpose or your employers are looking for an excuse for some other reason.

To answer your question: No, they have not admitted anything by offering a small "payoff". There can be all kinds of reason why payments are offered to settle disputes and it is nearly always without admission of any liability. It simple means they are looking for an easy and cheap way bringing it to an end.

You need some good legal advice on this. Does your house or car insurance provide any legal cover? Otherwise I would start by trying to get a free initial interview with a solicitor. If you prepare well for this with everything neatly organised and a list of questions you can cover a lot of ground in half an hour.