DBS check as part of Conveyancing Quality Scheme application - recent caution

PenguinKratos

I received a caution last September. It was for assault in the form of battery (I think it was worded). Which sounds worse than it actually was. Basically, I went out for a few drinks on a Friday night and got into an altercation with a bouncer. Pushing and shoving and so on, but no punches were thrown. I was in the wrong, hence why I admitted the offence. Hands held up, lesson well and truly learned.

This was and still is my first encounter with the police (aged 28 at the time of the caution), and it was completely out of character. Without making excuses, I was being a drunken idiot.

I have just started a new job (working within the accounts team in a law firm), throughout the interview process I was never asked to disclose any criminal records or anything of the like.

I have now been asked to fill out forms which include a basic DBS check as part of a Conveyancing Quality Scheme application. I am fairly confident that the purpose of the DBS check is to check for any previous financial convictions, i.e fraud, and as such this caution will not impact on the application. I think, although not sure, that it’s the Law Society that carry out the check and receive the report and not my employer, but I’m not confident. Perhaps someone could advise.

I am now obviously worried that in the knowledge that the DBS check will show this caution I now face losing this job and then face this affecting any future job applications.
Am I worrying over nothing? Could anyone offer any advice?

Thank you in advance.

Savvy_Sue

Advice: contact NACRO and ask about how to disclose at this stage. If you know who within the organisation you have to show your disclosure to, that's who you'd speak to. I don't know exactly how it works for the basic checks, but for enhanced we get a message to say that a disclosure is either clear, or not clear. If it's not clear, someone needs to see that person's disclosure and then make a decision about whether it's a barrier to employment or not.

Huskydays

Are you sure it's a Basic check and not a Standard Check?

Basic checks are run through Disclosure Scotland (for Scotland, England and Wales) or AccessNI (for Northern Ireland). Although a lot of people call them DBS checks just to confuse everyone else - this is not the case. The DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) currently do not issue Basic Disclosures - this will change later in the year but that's how we stand atm.

Basic disclosures/criminal record checks ONLY show unspent convictions and conditional cautions (a conditional caution is where you enter into a formal agreement with the police not to do something and they, in turn, agree not to prosecute).
A normal caution, warning or reprimand will not appear on a basic check and will not affect anything.

If you have to apply for a Standard DBS check, this is different.
A caution for assault in the form of battery will show up on a standard DBS check for 6 years (2 years if you were under 18 when cautioned). It will show up forever if the offence was against a child, but this obviously isn't the case here.

Savvy Sue is spot on about NACRO - Give them a call if you're not sure.

Guest101

PenguinKratos wrote: »

I received a caution last September. It was for assault in the form of battery (I think it was worded). Which sounds worse than it actually was. Basically, I went out for a few drinks on a Friday night and got into an altercation with a bouncer. Pushing and shoving and so on, but no punches were thrown. I was in the wrong, hence why I admitted the offence. Hands held up, lesson well and truly learned.

This was and still is my first encounter with the police (aged 28 at the time of the caution), and it was completely out of character. Without making excuses, I was being a drunken idiot.

I have just started a new job (working within the accounts team in a law firm), throughout the interview process I was never asked to disclose any criminal records or anything of the like.

I have now been asked to fill out forms which include a basic DBS check as part of a Conveyancing Quality Scheme application. I am fairly confident that the purpose of the DBS check is to check for any previous financial convictions, i.e fraud, and as such this caution will not impact on the application. I think, although not sure, that it’s the Law Society that carry out the check and receive the report and not my employer, but I’m not confident. Perhaps someone could advise.

I am now obviously worried that in the knowledge that the DBS check will show this caution I now face losing this job and then face this affecting any future job applications.
Am I worrying over nothing? Could anyone offer any advice?

Thank you in advance.

Actually that's exactly what it sounds like. You cant be touching people like that.