Your criminal record lists the offences that you have committed that have been recorded as a criminal conviction by a court. This could be when you sent in a written plea of guilty, made a guilty plea in court, were found guilty after a trial, or were convicted by the court in your absence.
In some circumstances, convictions on your criminal record might not be listed on a National Police Certificate, because the convictions have been 'spent'.
You can apply for a new conviction to be spent at the time you are being sentenced in court, or apply to have an old conviction spent after enough time has passed. You normally do not need to tell anyone if you have a spent conviction.
Find out:
- how to check what is on your record
- what a spent conviction means, and
- how you can apply for convictions to be made spent.