Since our last update, we have had hundreds of police cautions and arrest records deleted from the PNC.

We have now had over 350 arrest records and cautions removed from the PNC, from over a decade of cases.

We have had cautions removed in respect of any conceivable offence you can think off, ranging from low level assaults and drug possession, all the way to arson and sexual assault, and everything in between.

We believe we are the legal practice with the most experience of successfully deleting records from the PNC. Given our years of experience, we are in the best position to advise you on your prospects of successfully having a police caution removed from the PNC.

We are often asked which police forces we have successfully persuaded to removed PNC records. Below is a list of all the forces where we have successfully had records removed:

• The Metropolitan police
• Northumbria Police
• West Yorkshire Police
• British Transport police (BTP)
• Dorset police
• Hampshire police
• Avon and Somerset police
• Dyfed-Powys Police
• Warwickshire police
• Hertfordshire police
• Leicestershire Constabulary
• Devon and Cornwall police
• Cleveland police
• Humberside police
• Norfolk police
• Sussex police
• North Yorkshire police
• Gloucestershire Constabulary
• Durham police
• North Wales police
• Lancashire police
• Derbyshire police
• West Mercia police
• South Yorkshire police
• West Midlands police
• Lincolnshire police
• Bedfordshire police
• Nottinghamshire police
• Thames Valley police
• Staffordshire police
• Cheshire police
• Greater Manchester police
• Lincolnshire police
• Merseyside police
• Essex police
• Wiltshire police
• Surrey police
• Kent police
• Cambridgeshire police
• The City of London police
• Port of Dover Police

Along with successfully persuading police forces to remove PNC records, we also have considerable success of applying for the deletion of overseas convictions from the PNC.

Through our work in this area, ACRO changed their policy with respect to the deletion of overseas records. We noticed that EU regulations were being wrongly implemented by ACRO with respect to criminal records that had been transferred from European countries to the UK PNC. After we appealed to ACRO, pointing out the error, their policy was changed allowing for the deletion of certain European criminal records. Please get in touch if you have a criminal record that was transferred from overseas onto the UK PNC. We may be able to help you have this record removed.

If you are unsure whether your caution will impact your employment, you can try our police caution calculator.

The calculator will tell you how long your caution will be disclosed on a DBS Certificate.

Unless your caution is deleted, it will remain on the PNC until you reach 100 years. This means that even if a caution is not disclosed on a DBS certificate, it can still cause difficulty with respect to travel and immigration.

A caution will be revealed either directly or indirectly on an ACRO Police Certificate; a Police Certificate will typically be requested by an overseas jurisdiction when processing a visa or citizenship application.

Please get in touch today to discuss your case. Our office manager Myriam will be happy to field your initial enquiry, and if she believes we can help, an initial consultation can be arranged with our expert solicitor Matthew Elkins.

During your initial consultation Mr Elkins will be able to provide you with a detailed advice on your prospects of successfully having your caution or arrest record removed, based on his extensive experience that has been built over years, and hundreds of cases.

We charge reasonable fixed fees for all our services.

A police caution is a formal warning that can be given by the police to anyone who has admitted that they are guilty of a crime. Anyone under 18 will be issued a youth caution, rather than an adult caution. The police can issue a simple caution with no additional requirements, or a conditional caution where the police can impose requirements, such as writing a letter of apology or paying a fine.

A police caution is not a criminal conviction, but it can have serious consequences for your future.

• Criminal Record: A caution will be retained on the Police National Computer (PNC) until you reach 100 years of age (unless you get it deleted). The PNC is the database that stores all criminal records in the UK, including police cautions and arrest records.
• Bad Character Evidence: A police caution can be used as evidence of bad character if you are prosecuted for another crime in the future.
• Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS): A caution can prevent you from working. A simple caution will not show on a Basic DBS check, but a conditional caution will show for 3 months on a Basic DBS Certificate. Most cautions will automatically show for 6 years on a Standard or Enhanced DBS check, and then will become “protected” – even after 6 years, the police still retain a discretionary power to disclose facts related to the caution on an Enhanced DBS Certificate. Cautions for specified offences, such as ABH, sexual assault, or child neglect, will show forever on a Standard and an Enhanced DBS check.  For further details on when a police caution will be disclosed, please see our police caution calculator.
• Visas: A police caution may mean that certain countries will deny you a visa, residency or citizenship. As all cautions remain on the PNC until you reach 100 years of age, they can impact travel for the rest of a person’s life. A police caution may cause issues travelling to the United States of America , Canada, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Singapore, China, Australia, New Zealand and other countries.

The process of removing a police caution from the PNC is also known as applying for expungement or deletion. This means that your caution will be erased from the PNC, and you will no longer have to disclose it on job or immigration applications. However, not every caution will be eligible for deletion. You need to meet certain criteria and provide evidence that your caution was given unlawfully or unfairly.

If you have received a police caution, you may want to know how to remove it from the PNC, the database that stores all criminal records in the UK.

For the police to agree to remove a caution there must be compelling reasons. The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) set out in their Deletion Guidelines ten general grounds for deletion. These grounds are:

1. Unlawfully Taken – If DNA samples or fingerprints were obtained in violation of legal procedures.
2. Mistaken Identity or Unlawful arrest – If the record was created due to incorrect identification, such as where someone has been cleared after participating in an ID parade.
3. No Crime – If an individual was arrested but no offence occurred. This is not the same as proving your innocence, but is where no crime happened in the first place.
4. Malicious or False Allegation – If credible evidence confirms that the allegation was fabricated, deletion may be granted.
5. Proven Alibi – If an individual can provide corroborative evidence of an alibi which excludes them from the case.
6. Incorrect Disposal – If a caution was issued in error, for example where there was no clear and reliable admission to the allegation, then it should be deleted.
7. Suspect status not clear at the time of the arrest – if the police wrongly classified someone as a suspect, where they are in fact the victim or witness.
8. Judicial Outcome – If a court orders record removal.
9. Another person convicted of the offence – If there is no possibility of there being more than one offender, and someone else is convicted, then the record can be deleted.
10. Public Interest – If retaining the record is contrary to the wider public interest. This can include looking at the seriousness of the allegation, the level of culpability, the person’s age, and their personal circumstances, including mental health factors.

One of the most common grounds for removing a police caution is “incorrect disposal”. To establish that the caution was incorrectly given, you must show that the Ministry of Justice Guidance on police cautions was breached. Before a caution can be issued the police must ensure that:

• There is sufficient evidence to prosecute the accused for the offence.
• The accused must admit that they are guilty of the offence.
• The accused understands the significance of the caution and they must also give their informed consent to being cautioned.
• The police must also respect the law and rules related to detention and custody; significant breaches of these rules may make a caution unlawful.

If any of these conditions were not met, then you may be able to argue that your caution was incorrectly issued. Common examples where a caution might be eligible for deletion are listed below.

• You were under 18 years old when you received your caution and you did not have an appropriate adult present.
• You were under the influence of drugs or alcohol when you received your caution, and you did not understand what you were agreeing to.
• You were coerced or pressured into admitting the allegation or accepting your caution by the police or someone else.
• You were seriously mentally unwell at the time of the incident, or when the caution was issued.
• You were not given adequate legal advice before accepting your caution.
• You were not informed of the consequences of accepting your caution, such as how it would affect your future prospects.
• You were wrongly accused of the offence or there was insufficient evidence against you.
• You received your caution for an offence that is no longer considered a crime.

This list is not comprehensive, and your caution may still be eligible for deletion even if your case does not fit into the listed scenarios. For a comprehensive advice on the particular facts of your case, please contact us to arrange a consultation.

When applying for deletion of a police caution some of the things that should be included are:

• Your full name, date of birth, address and ID.
• The date and location of your caution and the offence for which it was given.
• The ground, or grounds, for deletion.
• The reasons why you believe your caution was unlawful or unfair, with supporting evidence such as witness statements, character references, exhibits, medical records and expert reports if appropriate, relevant previous legal judgments, statutory law, and regulations etc.
• An analysis of interview transcripts if you are disputing your admission.
• An analysis of custody CCTV and/or police body worn footage to see if PACE Guidelines have been breached.
• The impact the caution has had on your life, such as how it has affected your career, your family, education, travel, or personal relationships.

If you are unsure what to include in your police caution deletion application, then as experienced and dedicated solicitors, we will be happy to assist you. We know that receiving a police caution can be a very traumatic and emotional experience. Reliving the event can be difficult, and it may be hard for you to gain a genuine perspective on what happened. We will help you take the stress out of the process, and we will give you a fair and well-informed advice, based on our decades of experience, and hundreds of cases.

Once a caution removal application is submitted, how long it takes to receive a decision will depend on the police force concerned. The process can take months and there is no guarantee that your request will be granted.

Typically the application will be sent to ACRO, who will forward the application to the relevant police force. ACRO themselves do not decide cases; they simply facilitate the process.

Some police forces will take 1 or 2 months to decide, but others will take much longer, sometimes up to 18 months.

If the initial decision is negative, you can appeal the decision within the same police force. The appeal decision may take 1 or 2 months, but it can take a further 12 months, and sometimes longer.

Dependant on the facts, an application can be prioritised, but pushing for a decision is not always appropriate. We will be able to advise you whether it is in your best interests to press the police for a quick decision.

If your request is granted, your caution will be deleted from the PNC. If your request is denied, you will receive a letter from the police explaining why they have rejected your application. If you appeal this decision, and your request is again denied, you have the option of taking your case to judicial review before the Administrative Court, or you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

We have successfully had 100s of cautions removed over the years, and we believe we are the leading legal practice in this field. Most often we are able to persuade the police to remove a caution, but if this is not possible, we have the experience to take your case to court. We would only ever advise a client to take a case to court if there are very strong grounds to do so.

The simple answer to this is no. Each police force has their own particular way of reviewing deletion applications, with some police forces being much stricter than others, depending on the facts and circumstances.

There is no official fee for applying for expungement of a police caution; please see here for our detailed article on the costs involved in deleting a police caution.

You may be eligible for legal aid if you cannot afford to pay for legal advice or representation. Legal aid is a government-funded scheme that helps people who have a low income, or who are on benefits, to access legal services. You can find out if you qualify for legal aid here.

Unfortunately, we do not offer legal aid.

If your police caution is successfully removed from the PNC you will have the many benefits of having a clean criminal record. For example having a clean record can:

• Restore your reputation and confidence, as you will no longer have to worry about being judged or discriminated against because of your past mistake.
• Improve your employment prospects, as you will no longer have to disclose your caution to potential employers or face rejection because of it. You will be able to apply for jobs that require a clean criminal record, such as working with children or vulnerable adults, becoming a health care worker, emergency worker, lawyer or a teacher.
• Enhance your educational opportunities, as you will no longer have to disclose your caution to universities or colleges or face rejection because of it. You will be able to apply for courses that require a clean criminal record, such as medicine, nursing, or social work.
• Expand your travel options, as you will no longer have to disclose your caution to immigration authorities or face refusal because of it. You will be able to work and live in countries that have strict visa requirements or criminal record checks, such as the United States, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Switzerland, China, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
• Protect your privacy and security, as you will no longer have to worry about your caution being accessed or leaked by unauthorised parties, such as hackers or identity thieves.

We believe that given our extensive experience and knowledge in this field, acquired over many years, we can give our clients the edge in their deletion application. We have had hundreds of police cautions removed over the years; please see here to read our many positive reviews.

If you would like to arrange a consultation, then please contact us. We know that discussing a police caution can be stressful; you will find all of us at Legisia are friendly and approachable, and we will provide you with a sympathetic, confidential, and understanding ear.

DBS Caution Removal is possible, depending on the facts of your case.
If you have received a police caution, then it will show up on a standard and enhanced DBS Certificate.
Your police caution will show up on your DBS certificate for 6 years in most cases. If you received a youth caution, due to recent changes in the law, it will not show up on your DBS Certificate, unless it is an enhanced DBS Certificate. Youth police cautions can still show up on enhanced DBS Certificates on a discretionary basis, dependant on the facts of your case.

Some adult police cautions can show up indefinitely on both a Standard and Enhanced DBS Certificate, and will not become protected after 6 years.

A police caution will show indefinitely on a DBS Certificate if the caution was issued for a specified offence. Examples of specified offences are ABH, affray, sexual assault, child neglect/cruelty, and possession of indecent images.

For full details on how and when a police caution will show up on a DBS Certificate, please see our Police Caution Calculator.

If you have received a caution and it is showing up on your DBS Certificate, we can help you with DBS caution removal.

We have specialised in DBS caution removal for many years, and we have had hundreds of successful cases. Please see here for our Client Reviews.

You may feel that your caution was unfairly issued, or was issued a long time ago and so is no longer relevant to the person you are. If so we can help.

We always aim to persuade the police, without the need for court proceedings, to remove unwanted police cautions.

We will carefully construct your application to ensure you stand the best possible chance of successfully having your police caution removed from your DBS certificate.

Along with challenging unfairly issued and retained police cautions, we have also helped many clients with challenging disclosures on DBS certificates, and also barring proceedings.

Often when someone has been issued with a police caution, the DBS will consider them for barring. This is especially so if the case relates to violence or sexual offending.

We have successfully had many clients removed from the DBS’s barred lists, and also challenged barring decisions before they are made.

If you have been issued with a police caution, and you have now been referred for barring by the DBS, then we can help.

You may have lived with your caution for years, and it has held you back in terms of employment, or work and travel overseas. We have helped hundreds of people get their lives back on track, and put a minor incident behind them forever.

Please get in touch today to discuss DBS caution removal.

We offer reasonable fixed fees, and will always give you an honest and frank assessment of any case.

If you have received a police caution you may be wondering: what is a protected caution?

The best way to explain the difference between when a criminal record becomes “spent”, and when it becomes “protected”, is to look at the different types of background check.

There are three types of DBS certificate, basic, standard, and enhanced.

All employers can ask for a Basic DBS check. It is in relation to a Basic DBS check that it matters whether your record is “spent” or “unspent” according to the Rehabilitation of Criminal Offenders Act 1974.

All cautions are immediately “spent” for the purposes of a basic DBS check as soon as they are issued, no matter the type of offence, or when the caution was issued.

The only exception to this is in relation to a conditional caution. For a conditional caution it will become spent as soon as the conditions expire, up to a maximum of three months.

If your employer is asking you to apply for a standard or enhanced DBS certificate, this means they are allowed to ask an “exempted question”. This basically means that they are allowed to ask you about spent criminal records, but only to the extent that they are not “protected”.

The typical question you will be asked is the following:

An adult caution will become “protected” if it was issued six or more years ago, unless it is for an offence that is on the specified offences list.

All youth cautions (both simple and conditional) will be protected immediately.

If an adult caution is for an offence that appears on the specified offences list, your caution will be indefinitely disclosable on both a standard and an enhanced DBS certificate. Typical examples of specified offences cautions are ABH, affray, child cruelty/neglect, possession of indecent images of children or sexual assault.

For further details on when a caution will be disclosed, you can use our: police caution calculator.

Once a caution is protected the police will still retain it on the Police National Computer (PNC) until you reach 100 years of age.

For youth cautions they will not be automatically disclosable on any level of DBS certificate, but may be revealed as “relevant information” on an enhanced DBS certificate.

For adult cautions, after six years, a caution will be “protected” and will not be revealed on a standard DBS check, but might continue to be revealed on an enhanced DBS check as “relevant information”.

In order for the police to reveal a protected caution, they would have to justify that it was necessary, reasonable, and proportionate to disclose the information. If you are arrested a second time, or receive a second caution, then it will make it much more likely that a protected caution will be revealed on an enhanced DBS certificate.

A protected caution can also continue to cause problems with respect to visas and citizenship overseas. A caution will be revealed directly on an ACRO Police Certificate for either 5  or 10 years depending on the offence. Once the time period has elapsed, the caution will become “stepped down”. Once it is stepped down it will be indirectly revealed via a “no live trace” disclosure.

For anyone who has never been cautioned or convicted, their Police Certificate will simply state “no trace”. If you provide a “no live trace” certificate to a foreign embassy, most often they will then enquire into the details of your criminal record. Certain countries, notably the United States and China, may block a Visa or citizenship application based on a police caution, depending on the offence, and when the caution was issued.

So if you have now answered the question, what is a protected caution, and you realise your caution is not protected, then please get in touch.

We have years of experience in applying for the removal of police records, including hundreds of successful police caution removal cases.

We understand the significant impact a low-level criminal allegation can have on someone’s career, and we deal with every case sensitively and compassionately.

We charge reasonable fixed fees for our services. Please contact us to arrange a fixed fee initial consultation where we will be able to provide you an honest and frank opinion on your prospects of successfully having your police caution removed.

If you have received a caution, you may be wondering how to challenge a police caution.

How to go about challenging a police caution will vary according to the facts of your case.

The best time to challenge a police caution is before it has been issued.

If the police are considering whether to issue a police caution, you can at that point challenge the case against you. You may be able to persuade the police that the evidence against you is weak, or that there is no public interest in issuing a caution.

A solicitor should be able to assist you in challenging the imposition of a police caution.

If the police are unwilling to drop your case altogether, they maybe willing to adopt an alternative outcome in your case, such as a community resolution or a penalty notice. A community resolution or penalty notice would not have the same impact on your criminal record as a police caution.

If you have already been issued with a police caution, you have several options to challenge the caution.

If the caution has been issued very recently, namely within the last day or so, you may be able to go back to the investigating officers, and directly challenge the caution.

This option is not very likely to succeed, as often the police will have already moved onto their next case, and will not want to revisit your case. This approach also risks the possibility that the police may remove your caution, but then charge you and prosecute you at court.

As an alternative to approaching the police directly, you can challenge your caution by applying for deletion via ACRO.

You can set out the legal arguments why you believe your caution should be removed. ACRO will pass your application onto the police force concerned, who will then take a decision.

There are a number of different grounds that you can set out to challenge a police caution. For example, you may be able to argue that the allegation was false or malicious, that no crime had been committed, or that there is no public interest in keeping your caution on the Police National Computer (PNC).

Alternatively, you could lodge a complaint with the police, but this will depend on the circumstances of your case.

If the police refuse to delete your caution, you can then consider taking your case to Court, to have a judge decide your case.

If your case is very urgent, and you must have your caution removed promptly, you may want to consider bypassing ACRO and issuing court proceedings. This approach is high risk, as you will incur steeper costs. Even if you do not instruct a solicitor you will need to pay court fees, and if you lose, you will risk having to pay the police’s legal costs.

If you challenge your caution by applying to ACRO first and they refuse, you may then be able to appeal your case to the Administrative Court. This however will depend on the facts of your case, and the timeframe. You will need to carefully bear in mind the time since your caution was issued, and when the police took their decision to refuse to remove your caution. The Court can be unforgiving if you miss a relevant deadline.

If you do challenge your caution via ACRO, when preparing your deletion application you will need to frame your application bearing in mind the law and criminal procedure. You will need to keep in mind how a High Court judge might perceive your case, even if you have no intention of actually issuing Court proceedings. By bearing in mind previous case law your application will have a greater chance of success, and will come over as credible and reasonable to the police.

If you are still wondering how to challenge a police caution, and you do not want to apply to the police or court yourself, we can help you.

We have years of experience in successfully applying for the deletion of a wide variety of police cautions and arrest records with police forces across England and Wales.

Our director, Matthew Elkins, is the leading police records deletion solicitor, with years of experience in challenging the retention of police records. Over the years we have successfully applied for the deletion of hundreds of police cautions from the Police National Computer (PNC).

We offer reasonable fixed fees, and will give you an honest assessment of your prospects of successfully challenging your police caution. Our aim is always to keep your case out of court, to minimise your costs, stress and risk.

If you would like to discuss how we can challenge your police caution, or would like advice in relation to arrest records, DBS Certificates, or barring proceedings, then please get in touch to arrange a fixed fee consultation.

We are expert police caution removal solicitors, we have years of experience in applying for the deletion of police cautions.

Our director, Matthew Elkins, is a highly experience police caution removal solicitor, and expert Disclosure and Barring Service lawyer.

If you have received a police caution, and you are only now realising  its impact, you can apply to have your police caution removed.

You can apply to have your caution removed yourself, if you feel confident in handling the police and you fully understand the law in this area. Alternatively you can instruct an expert solicitor.

We have extensive experience and success in applying for the removal of police cautions, and we have had hundreds of successful cases.

We are dedicated police record removal solicitors and DBS appeal lawyers. We do not focus on anything else, and  we have many years of experience to draw upon.

During an initial consultation with our expert police caution removal solicitor, we will be able to give you an honest and clear assessment of your prospects of success.

We know the types of cases that are likely to succeed, depending on the facts of the case, and the police force concerned.

Although the law applies equally to everyone, we have found over the years that each police force does have their own particular approach. Knowing which approach is likely to work with a certain police force, and what won’t, will save you money with other police caution removal solicitors, who do not have the same depth of experience as us.

Along with being expert police caution removal solicitors, we also have extensive experience in applying for the deletion of a wide range of other police records, including community resolutions, Penalty Notices for Disorder (PND), arrest records, and also local police records.

All information recorded by the police regarding an allegation has the potential to form part of a disclosure on an enhanced DBS certificate. Therefore even if you have only been accused of an allegation, this can have an impact on your employment.

If you are unsure if you have a police caution, you can check to see if you do in fact have a police caution. For more information about this, please see our article here: How do you know if you have a police caution?

You can also visit our police caution calculator, to see the impact a police caution will have on background checks.

If you would like to arrange an appointment to speak with an expert police caution removal solicitor, then please get in touch. All enquiries are treated in confidence, and all case work is undertaken on a reasonable fixed rate fee.

Cases are handled remotely, and in most cases we can avoid the need for court.

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.

If you have ever wondered, can you get rid of a police caution? The simple answer to this question is, yes.

Whether you can get rid of your caution in your circumstances, will depend on a number of factors.

Getting rid of certain police cautions can be more challenging than others.

Where the caution is for a more serious offence, and where the evidence is very compelling, it may make getting rid of your police caution more difficult, but it may not be impossible.

It is possible to apply to the police yourself to have a police caution removed, however this is the case with any criminal matter. You can represent yourself in any allegation, from the most serious to the most minor. If you do not want to represent yourself, you can instruct a lawyer to assist you. We are dedicated expert police caution removal lawyers, with years of experience with success in hundreds of cases.

If you have received a police caution it will be retained on the Police National Computer (PNC) until you reach 100 years of age.

Your caution will be disclosed according to different time periods, the type of offence, and the type of background check you are applying for. Please see our police caution calculator for details of how and when your caution will be revealed.

People often wrongly believe (due to faulty advice given to them by their duty solicitor/the police) that their police caution will be removed after five years, for discussion on this topic please visit here: Can a caution be removed after 5 years?

Getting rid of a police caution will mean that it will be removed from the Police National Computer. This will mean that your caution will be completely removed from the PNC, and will know longer automatically be revealed on a DBS certificate, or an ACRO police certificate. The police do also separately retain local/PND records. For information on local/PND records, please visit here:

Clients often instruct us to get rid of their police caution from the PNC, as it is having a significant impact on their employment, or ability to move overseas.

If you have a police caution, you may find that it is causing you difficulties obtaining a visa, or overseas citizenship. Countries such as the United States and China are very strict with respect to any previous criminal record. Cautions for certain offences, such as possession of drugs or violent/sexual offences, will make it particularly difficult for you to obtain a Visa or citizenship.

Whilst you have a police caution, it will be revealed directly on an ACRO Police Certificate for between five or 10 years, depending on the offence. After the time period has elapsed, your caution will become “stepped down”, but it will continue to be indirectly revealed via a “no live trace” disclosure. For someone who has never received a caution or conviction, there police certificate will simply state “no trace”.

Many countries once they see a “no live trace disclosure” on an ACRO Police Certificate, will then enquire into the full details of that person’s criminal record.

If your caution is deleted, your police certificate will state “no trace”.

We are a legal practice dedicated to helping people with previous criminal records, and have successfully challenged the retention of police cautions in hundreds of cases.

The majority of our clients are highly qualified, and often leading professionals, where the impact of a police caution is often devastating to their career. We have successfully helped many clients put minor incidents behind them, and move on successfully with the rest of their lives.

Many of our clients may also have had minor difficulties in their youth/younger years, but have gone on to lead successful and highly productive lives. Often these clients feel unfairly chained to their past by their previous record.

We know that minor police records can have a major impact on people’s lives, we therefore do all we can to ensure you get the clear record that you deserve.

If you would like expert advice on getting rid of your police caution, from the leading lawyer in this field, then please get in touch.

We are often asked; can a caution be removed after 5 years? The reason for this question stems back to previous disclosure rules that now only generally apply to ACRO Police Certificates. We still hear of police offices telling arrestees that their caution will be “removed” after 5 years, even though the rules changed many years ago. The reason for the faulty advice may be due to a lack of training, or it could be related to an officer’s desire to ensure compliance from a suspect. An officer may tell a suspect that they shouldn’t worry about accepting a caution as it will be removed after a relatively short period of time.

The reality is that cautions are not “removed” after 5 years.

The question you then to ask is what do you mean by “removed”, also from where are the records removed, and in relation to what purpose?

The 5 year rule was originally set out in the Association of Chief Officers of Police (ACPO)’s General Rules for Criminal Record Weeding on Police Computer Systems and Code of Practice on Data Protection issued in 1995. These rules meant that certain cautions and convictions would be deleted from police systems after a period of time. For a caution, generally they would be deleted after 5 years.

In 2004 the Bichard Report came out which made recommendations about the creation, review, retention, deletion and information sharing of such information.  In 2006, ACPO issued new guidelines for the retention of records on the Police National Computer (PNC) which replaced the 1995 guidelines; this provided for the retention of records until the subject reached 100 years of age, but with a process known as “stepping down” under which types of records would, after a given period, only be disclosed for police purposes or for enhanced disclosure.  Cautions were stepped down after 5 or 10 years depending on the severity of the offence.

In 2009 there was a court ruling, commonly referred to as the “Five Constables Case” that clarified whether records should be deleted from the PNC. The court decided that there needed to be a “complete record” of all arrests, cautions and convictions held on the PNC, and so that although records may not be disclosed after certain periods of time, they would not be deleted from the PNC until a person reached 100 years of age.

Therefore, in respect to the question; can a caution be removed after 5 years, strictly speaking the answer is no. The caution will be retained on the PNC until the data subject reaches 100 years, unless the caution is deleted from the PNC.

The 5 year retention rule does still apply for ACRO Police Certificates for certain cautions. Cautions for more minor offences, such as low level assaults, will become “stepped down” after 5 years, but this does not mean the caution will be “removed” from the PNC. What will happen after 5 years is that the caution will no longer be directly revealed on the Police Certificate, but the Certificate will instead state “no live trace”. If you have never had a caution or conviction, your certificate will simply state “no trace”. A no live trace record can cause difficulties when it comes to immigration as many countries will enquire why a certificate says “no live trace” as opposed to “no trace” – the US and China being notable examples.

If your caution is for a possession of a class A drug then the step down period if 10 years, instead of 5.

The current situation in relation to adult police cautions and background checks is generally that they will not show on a basic DBS check (unless it is a conditional caution, and only for up to 3 months).

On a standard and enhanced DBS certificate a police caution will show for 6 years, and then become protected. If the caution is for an offence that is on the specified offences list (such as child cruelty/neglect, ABH, affray, sexual assault, possession of indecent images) then the caution will be permanently disclosable on a standard and enhanced check. On an enhanced check the police can still disclose information related to a protected caution after the 6 year period if they feel it is relevant to do so. For more details on when a police caution will be revealed, please see our police caution calculator.

The opinion that a police caution is removed after 5 years is a remnant from previous rules, rules that are still being repeated by some police officers. In truth a caution is retained until someone reaches 100 years of age (unless the caution is deleted) and will be subject to different disclosure rules depending on the check that is being done, and the type of offence the caution was given for.

Police Caution Removal Cost – what are the costs to have your police caution removed? 

The short answer is that it would cost nothing if you apply to the police for the deletion of your police caution yourself.

You can apply to the police to ask them to remove your caution from the Police National Computer (PNC). If the police agree to the removal of your police caution, then that will be the end of the matter.

If the police do not agree to the deletion of your caution, then you have the option of doing nothing (in which case your police caution will remain on the PNC) or you can file for Judicial Review proceedings before the High Court.

You can lodge Judicial Review proceedings yourself, and this would cost you nothing other than the Courts fees and associated  costs (printing and/or expert witnesses). If however you did lose your case, the police can ask for the Court to order you to pay some, or all, of their costs.Therefore if you did take your case yourself, even though you would not have the cost (nor the benefit) of a lawyer, your police caution removal costs could still end up being fairly significant.

It therefore really depends on how comfortable you are with the law, and being able to present your case to the police with an objective frame of mind. It is possible for a non legally trained person to present a convincing case for deletion to the police. It can however sometimes be difficult, especially where someone feels aggrieved about their case, to obtain the correct impartial perspective; namely it is sometimes difficult to see the full picture when you are inside the frame.

You may have heard of the old adage (no doubt invented by a lawyer) that a person who acts as his own lawyer, has a fool for a client. Whilst this is not true in all cases, and undoubtedly many people would do a very good job of representing themselves, but even the most intelligent of people will lack one important critical aspect in preparing their case – experience.

Through the preparation of hundreds of deletion cases we are well placed to able to determine whether a case is likely to succeed or not.

This is not just based on our extensive knowledge of the law, but also based on our knowledge of particular police forces and how they have reacted in the past.

You may be surprised to learn that each police force, in a manner of speaking, has their own particular character and way of handling deletion requests. Some police forces will interpret the deletion rules, and Data Protection Act, very narrowly, whilst other police forces adopt a much more progressive approach to the rules.  For example, some police forces are much more likely to agree to the deletion of a certain caution than others – we have developed this experience and knowledge by applying for the deletion of many records over the years.

We believe we are the legal practice with the most experience of police records deletion in the country – for example we recently had 5 separate police cautions removed in one day, and also two enhanced DBS certificates successfully appealed the same day.

It is due to this extensive knowledge and experience that we have become known as the go-to lawyers for any criminal record or DBS issue.

We also have developed a keen eye for what not to say to the police; part of our value added to any case is making sure our clients do not inadvertently present evidence that harms their application.

A police caution deletion application is technically free (unless you need to go to Court), but then everyone is free to represent themselves in any legal proceedings – from the most minor traffic incident, all the way to murder.

In representing yourself, you may be able to come to understand the law fully, perhaps even better than your lawyer in some cases, but what you will lack is the valuable experience that comes from real world legal practice.

In a caution deletion case if you do choose to avoid paying legal costs, and the police provide you with a negative decision, this can making it harder to undo if you have provided the police with evidence that has locked you into an unhelpful line of defence, or attack.

Also if you do get a final rejection letter from the police, you will then have a relatively limited time frame (3 months) to get a lawyer on board. In our opinion it is harder to pick up a case after a client has already had a refusal, although we have nevertheless had a number of cases where we have been able to turn a refusal into a successful deletion.

It is also important to bear in mind that in some cases a caution is very unlikely to be deleted, and as experienced police caution deletion lawyers we will be able to advise you on your prospects of success. We can provide you an initial consultation where we will tell you whether it is worth your time and money to pursue your case.

Another common problem we have noticed is that clients often want to raise as many points as possible, hoping that at least one of them will hit the target. In our experience this just makes for a confused application, and will rapidly lose the interest of the police. If you have ever been to witness a busy day at court where a judge has a long list of cases to deal with, you may understand this point. A time pressed judge will have very little patience for any advocate who prevaricates, and makes scattergun representations. The same is true with a deletion application; representations need to be concise, relevant, legally sound, factually accurate, and consistent.

Although we believe it is best that you instruct an experienced police caution deletion solicitor, we understand that police caution removal costs can be an issue.

If you do want someone to represent you, we offer reasonable fixed fees, namely you will not be billed on an hourly basis – you will know all our police caution removal costs up front, and we will not go over this limit.

Some more complex cases may require a slightly higher fixed fee, whereas for more straightforward cases the police caution removal costs will be lower.

In all cases we offer a fixed fee initial consultation where you will get expert legal advice (and a sympathetic ear) followed up by a detailed written advice with clearly explained costs.

If you would like to set up an initial consultation, and to discuss our costs for police caution removal, then please get in touch.