You may have seen advice on the internet recommending that you should never accept a police caution.

We will look at whether it is always the best advice to never accept a police caution, and when it might be best to actually accept a police caution.

It is tempting for some people to always resist the police, and effectively not cooperate with any police procedures. Whilst this may work in certain circumstances, it can actually be counterproductive at times.

If a legal adviser were to adopt the view that you should never accept a police caution in any circumstances, they would in fact frequently be making matters worse for their clients.

It is an essential skill for any legal advisor to be able to tell when it is best to advise accepting a police caution, and when to refuse one – if a lawyer adopted a “never accept a police caution” approach, they would be a very poor lawyer.

You should consider accepting a police caution if the evidence against you is strong.

The issue will then be to decide if the evidence is in fact strong.

At the police station, particularly if you are on represented, it may be difficult to precisely determine the strength of the evidence against you. The police are not allowed to directly mislead a suspect about the strength of the evidence against them, but they may withhold evidence, so that it is unclear exactly what the strength of the case is.

If it is clear however that the evidence is very strong, then you should give very strong consideration to accepting a police caution

It may be better to say, never accept a police caution unless the case against you is clear, and the evidence is strong.

If you don’t accept the caution in these circumstances, you run a much higher chance of being charged by the police, and ultimately being convicted.

A conviction will have more serious implications in terms of sentencing, with the possibility of imprisonment, and also will have a longer-term impact in terms of background checks.

An example of when evidence may be strong is if someone is found in possession of illegal drugs, and there is no reasonable explanation as to why.

In those circumstances, if you do not accept a caution, it is quite likely that the police will charge you. There may be arguments to be made for a lower disposal, such as a PND or a community resolution, but if the police do not want to offer these, if you refuse the caution, it is very likely that you will be charged.

On the other hand, if the evidence against you is very weak, then you may be best advised to remain silent, or where you have a plausible defence, then explain yourself, and then refuse the caution.

The police and CPS will need to carefully consider the public interest in proceeding to a prosecution where the evidence is very weak. The police deal with hundreds of cases a day, and they cannot afford to prosecute weak cases that are unlikely to result in a conviction. The financial costs of prosecuting are very high, and so the police and prosecution will not want to waste resources on cases that are unlikely to succeed.

Whilst there is always a risk if you refuse a caution that you could be charged, if the evidence is very weak, this risk is low.

An example of a case where the evidence is weak is where someone has been accused of assault, but the complainant refuses to provide a statement or cooperate with the police’s investigation. Essentially there is no other evidence other than the initial telephone report to the police. Whilst the police do have the power to summons a reluctant witness to court, the more minor the allegation, the less likely this is to happen. Often where the evidence against the suspect is very weak, the best advice to a suspect is to remain silent, thereby avoiding providing the police with any incriminating evidence.

It is not therefore sound advice to always advise someone to never accept a police caution if it is offered. It will depend on the facts of the case.

Refusing a police caution where the evidence is strong, is likely to result in a prosecution, and ultimately a conviction and criminal record. Accepting a caution in these circumstances would be the lesser of two evils.

On the other hand, where the evidence is very weak, remaining silent, preventing the police from obtaining any additional evidence, is often the best course of action.

If you have accepted a caution, and are now worried about the impact on your professional career, or overseas travel, it may be possible to get your caution removed.

We are expert and dedicated criminal records lawyers, who have extensive experience in applying for the deletion of police cautions from the Police National Computer (PNC).

We have successfully applied for hundreds of police cautions and arrest records to be removed from the PNC, please get in touch to discuss your case.

Our client was issued a police caution for theft. The allegation was a very low level incident of “theft by finding” during a University night out with friends.

The client and his friends had taken an item of property they had thought was discarded. The client had seen the item lying in what appeared to be some rubbish, and had not dishonestly taken it.

The incident was however reported by the police, and the client and his friends were investigated. They were all accused of theft, and due to a fear of being taken to court, the client, and his friends, accepted police cautions.

The client felt he had  denied the allegation, but just agreed to the police caution to escape from the police. He was told the police caution would have no impact on his future.

The client came to learn after the caution was issued that it would cause him serious issues when applying for a Green Card to the Untied States. A caution for theft is considered a conviction for “moral turpitude” and was advised by US attorneys to challenge the police caution.

The caution would be indirectly indefinitely disclosed on an ACRO Police Certificate as a “no live trace” disclosure. A “no live trace” disclosure will tell a foreign nation that the person has a criminal record, and will, for countries such as the USA, China, Saudi Arabia, Canada, and Singapore, precipitate a request for further details about that person’s background.

We obtained the records from the police and were quickly able to prepare a deletion application. We argued that the police caution had been unfairly issued, and that the caution ought to be expunged from the PNC.

The police responded by completely deleting the client’s record from the PNC, and also deleting his DNA and fingerprints.

We have extensive experience in applying for the deletion of police cautions in relation to many different police forces.

Along with applying for the deletion of police cautions, we are also able to assist with the deletion of PNC arrest records, community resolutions, harassment PINs, Penalty Notices for Disorder (PNDs), biometric data (including custody images) and local police records held on the Police National Database (PND).

We can also assist with challenging DBS disclosures on both standard and enhanced DBS certificates. Our lawyers also have extensive experience in challenging DBS barring decisions; both appealing existing barrings, or resisting a new barring application.

We are also able to help if you are being investigated by a regulator including the General Medical Council (GMC), the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), the Health Care Professions Council (HCPC), the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC), Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), the General Optical Council (GOC), the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT), the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), the General Dental Council (GDC), the General Osteopathic Council (GOsC), Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS), and the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA).

In most cases we offer fixed fees, unfortunately we do not offer legal aid.

Please get in touch to arrange an initial consultation

We have recently had a possession of cocaine caution deleted for our client. The client wanted to change profession into a regulated sector and was concerned the caution would cause him some issues in securing a job.

A cocaine caution will be retained on the PNC until a data subject is 100 years of age, it will be disclosed on a standard and enhanced DBS certificate for 6 years (and possibly longer on an DBS enhanced check) and will indefinitely be disclosed on an ACRO Police Certificate via a “No Live Trace” disclosure.

After receiving our client’s instruction, we promptly prepared an application to the police, and successfully persuaded them to remove the client’s caution.

Now that the caution is deleted the client is now clear from the PNC and his DBS Certificate and also his ACRO Police Certificate are clear.

We have had another client’s police caution deleted. The client had been issued a police caution for theft.

The client had been issued an a caution for shoplifting a number of years ago.

The client had forgotten to pay for a small item from a well known shop, being distracted by her young child. On her way out of the shop the client was detained by the security staff. The security staff did not listen to her explanations and the police were summoned.

She was taken to the police station, misled about the impact of the caution, and decided to admit the allegation, and accept the caution in order to escape from police custody.

The client had tormented herself for many years about the caution, regretting her decision to accept it, and felt the caution was an unfair black mark against her name.

On reviewing the police’s evidence, we concluded that there were some material errors in her case, and so we drafted a deletion application to the police.

Within several months the police acknowledged the caution had been unfairly issued, and agreed to the expungement of the client’s record.

The caution was completely deleted, as was the client’s PNC record, fingerprints and DNA records.

The client now has a completely clear record on the PNC and is “no trace” on an ACRO Police Certificate.

We have again had a police caution deleted for a client. The caution had been issued a number of years ago. The police caution was issued for affray.

The client had always felt that the caution had been unfairly issued, and that he had been bullied into accepting it.

We reviewed all the evidence in the client’s case and concluded that the caution had been wrongly issued.

We presented all the evidence we had gathered together and presented this to the police. The police notified us of their decision to delete the police caution within a relativity short period of time.

Now the caution is deleted the client has a clear PNC record, and nothing shows on his enhanced DBS check.

Also his ACRO Police Certificate now says “no trace” .