CRB, Police Cautions and Domestic Disputes

Police Cautions, CRB and Domestic Arguments

Domestic arguments are a common occurrence, be them between husband and wife, people who are cohabiting or between friends, siblings or other family members.

When tension get particularly high sometimes the police might get involved, either one party to the argument might call the police or a neighbour or some other person might call.

The Police, CRB and Domestic Disputes

Once the police are involved this will often mean that either one or both sides of the dispute are spoken to by the police and perhaps even arrested.

The police often take domestic incidents seriously as serious violent crimes, including murder, often happen in a domestic context and so they adopt a pro-active response to any allegation.

For low level domestic incidents the police will often be looking to resolve the matter by issuing a simple police caution. A simple police caution is given where a suspect admits the allegation and the police consider the allegation not to be serious enough to take to Court.

Police Cautions and the Victim

Sometimes in domestic incidents, once the police have arrived, tempers have calmed down and the “victim” of the assault very often doesn’t want to the police to make an arrest. Unfortunately however, due to the police’s pro-active approach to domestic cases, they usually will make an arrest. This may happen even if the victim refuses to provide a statement.

Caution and the CRB

If you have been arrested, and given a police caution, whilst you were at the police station, the police may have told you that you must accept a caution or “things would get worse” or that the caution was just a “slap on the wrist” and you needn’t worry about accepting one.

A simple police caution can in fact have serious consequences for someone’s professional career – this is especially if you work in a regulated environment such as finance, the law, health care, national security, teaching, social work or some other trusted profession. A caution will show up on a standard and enhanced CRB (now called DBS) background check.

A police caution will generally show up for 6 years on a standard CRB (DBS) check and may always show up on an enhanced CRB check. Cautions for certain offences, such as ABH or child cruelty, will always show up on a CRB certificate.

CRB Simple Police Caution Removal

If you have received a police caution as a result of a domestic incident, then please get in touch. It is possible to get a police caution removed or amended from your CRB (now DBS) check.

If you feel you have been done an injustice by the police and that perhaps the person who had you arrested didn’t intend for you to be given a police caution – then please get in touch.

Even if you have separated or are estranged from the person who instigated the case against you, it may still be possible to have your simple police caution removed.

I have had success in removing a significant number of police cautions. I strongly believe that the police often issue police cautions as it is an easy option for them, even if there is insufficient evidence to prosecute a case, and they often fail to consider the long term consequences of the caution on a CRB check (DBS check).

Even if you had a lawyer advising you at the police station, I may be able to have your caution removed from the CRB. It may be that your lawyer incorrectly advised you and that you are now paying the consequences.

Advice on caution removal

If you are suffering due to a police caution as it is being disclosed on a CRB check then please get in touch to discuss how I can help.

Police Caution CRB Removal Solicitor

I have had numerous police cautions removed from the CRB. Where judicial review proceedings have been issued, I have been able to recoup my clients’ costs from the police.

I am also able to assist in applying for information disclosed on DBS (formerly CRB) certificates to be removed – if you feel information has been unfairly disclosed by the police you have the right to dispute its disclosure.

I recently co-authored a journal paper on the reform of the police cautioning procedure in the Criminal Law Review (the leading criminal law journal – see here for the abstract of the paper: “Suggestions for Reform to the Simple Cautioning procedure”). I also recently wrote the UK Westlaw Insight on Police Cautions – Westlaw Insights are written “by experts in the field including leading solicitors, barristers and academics – all overseen by Parliamentary Counsel.“

I offer a reasonable fixed fee for police caution removal and DBS certificate disclosure disputes. If you have caution showing on your CRB check then please get in touch. It is possible to have a caution removed from a CRB and you might be suffering needlessly.