Criminal Justice (Spent Convictions and Certain Disclosures) Act 2016

5.

Convictions which may be regarded as spent in certain circumstances

5. (1) Where a person is convicted of an offence, whether before or after the commencement of this Part, and the conditions specified in subsection (2) are satisfied, then subject to provisions of this Part, the conviction may be regarded as a spent conviction.

(2) The conditions referred to in subsection (1) are the following, namely:

(a) the person shall be a natural person and shall have attained the age of 18 years at the date of the commission of the offence which is the subject of the conviction concerned;

(b) not less than 7 years shall have passed since the effective date of conviction;

(c) the sentence imposed by the court in respect of the conviction shall not be an excluded sentence;

(d) the person shall have served or otherwise undergone or complied with any sentence imposed, or order made by the court in dealing with the person in respect of the conviction concerned.

(3) Subject to subsection (5), no more than one conviction may be regarded as a spent conviction and if a person has more than one conviction, this section shall not apply to that person.

(4) Where in any proceedings before a court, a person is convicted of 2 or more offences which are committed simultaneously or arise from the same incident, and the court in passing sentence, imposes more than one relevant sentence in respect of those offences, the convictions shall be regarded as one single conviction.

(5) Subsection (3) shall not apply to a relevant sentence imposed by the District Court on a person in respect of an offence under—

(a) the Road Traffic Acts 1961 to 2015, other than section 53 of the Road Traffic Act 1961,

(b) section 37A of the Intoxicating Liquor Act 1988,

(c) section 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 8A(4) or 9 of the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act 1994.