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Hi all,
In 2013 some students tried to pickpocket my drunk husband outside of a club. We got into a pushing and shoving fight, exchanged a lot of profanities and left. There were no punches thrown and only scratches and bruises on both sides.
A week later, a Police Officer turned up at my door and asked me to go down to the station the next day for a chat. I wasn't under arrest and attended willingly.
Long story short, I ended up with a caution. The police played down the whole situation to me by saying that if I accepted the caution I could go home, forget about it and it would be off my record in 5 years anyway. The students had witness statements (omitting the pickpocketing of course) but I was advised it would have to go to court if I wanted my friends to give statements. I was young and scared of court so I just accepted so I could go home.
Fast forward to now, I've been accepted on to a uni course that requires an Enhanced DBS. I've read the letter that the PO gave me a thousand times and I'm certain it said "Section 39 Common Assault" (and as such have waited 6 years for it to be filtered). However, I've done a Subject Access Request and it says "Assault Occasioning Actual Bodily Harm". Typically I can't find the paperwork that I was given but I emailed the Information Governance Officer assuming a mistake had been made on the PNC. He has recalled the case file and advised me that it does say ABH. I never so much as received a fine and I was never arrested yet I have a caution on my file for life.
He has emailed the following to me but I don't believe it's correct -
"As previously stated, I am advised by our DBS team that the distinction between ABH and common assault would not make any difference from a DBS point of view. The offence would be subject to filtering for a standard check. An enhanced check would flag to a Disclosure Officer to consider the circumstances and whether there is any necessity to disclose any information held in relation to the type of job role applied for. Details of the decision making process can be found on the gov.uk website."
I'm thinking of speaking to a solicitor as the seriousness of this offence has been played down to me by the police twice now and my uni place is on the line. I don't really have any legal knowledge so I'm wondering whether this is worth pursuing.
In 2013 some students tried to pickpocket my drunk husband outside of a club. We got into a pushing and shoving fight, exchanged a lot of profanities and left. There were no punches thrown and only scratches and bruises on both sides.
A week later, a Police Officer turned up at my door and asked me to go down to the station the next day for a chat. I wasn't under arrest and attended willingly.
Long story short, I ended up with a caution. The police played down the whole situation to me by saying that if I accepted the caution I could go home, forget about it and it would be off my record in 5 years anyway. The students had witness statements (omitting the pickpocketing of course) but I was advised it would have to go to court if I wanted my friends to give statements. I was young and scared of court so I just accepted so I could go home.
Fast forward to now, I've been accepted on to a uni course that requires an Enhanced DBS. I've read the letter that the PO gave me a thousand times and I'm certain it said "Section 39 Common Assault" (and as such have waited 6 years for it to be filtered). However, I've done a Subject Access Request and it says "Assault Occasioning Actual Bodily Harm". Typically I can't find the paperwork that I was given but I emailed the Information Governance Officer assuming a mistake had been made on the PNC. He has recalled the case file and advised me that it does say ABH. I never so much as received a fine and I was never arrested yet I have a caution on my file for life.
He has emailed the following to me but I don't believe it's correct -
"As previously stated, I am advised by our DBS team that the distinction between ABH and common assault would not make any difference from a DBS point of view. The offence would be subject to filtering for a standard check. An enhanced check would flag to a Disclosure Officer to consider the circumstances and whether there is any necessity to disclose any information held in relation to the type of job role applied for. Details of the decision making process can be found on the gov.uk website."
I'm thinking of speaking to a solicitor as the seriousness of this offence has been played down to me by the police twice now and my uni place is on the line. I don't really have any legal knowledge so I'm wondering whether this is worth pursuing.
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