TV Licence Conviction, Criminal Record and ILR

[Deenfat]

I am due to apply for my ILR with my wife (dependent) in May. Unfortunately my wife was convicted of TV licence offence last month and was fined (I think £160 + cost, as we pleaded non guilty and attended the court). and I will definitely would want to apply for the ILR at same time with her.

I have been trawling this forum but with little help specifically regarding TV licence issue and the Criminality Threshold.

So I decided to do some research on it as it affect the Criminality Threshold, especially the last bullet point of para 322 (1C) - outlined below - in relation to TV licence conviction.

 have, within the 24 months preceding the date of the application, been
convicted of or admitted to an offence and received a non-custodial sentence
or other out of court disposal recorded on their criminal record.

My understanding from the Justice Secretary http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id ... a.189697.h is that TV licence offence is "non recordable", which implies the offence is not recorded on police national computer (PNC). - See extract below from the Justice Sec response

.........Non-payment of a television licence is not a ‘recordable’ offence as it does not attract a custodial sentence and is not in the list of offences defined as ‘recordable’ in legislation. For these reasons, this offence is not routinely recorded on the Ministry of Justice's extract of the Police National Computer.

If above is correct and assuming Home office checks will be a CRB (now DBS) check and they (the DBS) get their information from PNC, then a TV licence conviction will not show, except if they do have wider than PNC recordable offences included in their DBS checks. The DBS website (https://www.gov.uk/government/organisat ... vice/about) gives an outline of where they search for criminal record and the stages

...We search police records and, in relevant cases, barred list information, and then issue a DBS certificate to the applicant.

Stage 1 - application form received and validated
Stage 2 - Police National Computer searched
Stage 3 - children and adults lists searched, where applicable
Stage 4 - records held by the police searched


Am I right then in thinking with all the above information, TV licence conviction will be treated like PCN, etc and does not fall under the last bullet point of criminality threshold of section 322(C1)?

The only snag is that I called the DBS to ask the question for which they refer me to a charity (Nacro - nacro.org.uk) as the organisation that will help answer my question. When I called the lady and explained to her the conviction, all she asked was did we attended the court and I said yes then she said it will appear in the record. This is a direct opposite of Min of Justice and the DBS information above and confused me a bit. Makes me think they just dont look at the Police records (PNC)?

Please could forum member with some experience help clarify or chip in with their ideas on whether it is plausible to rely on the above argument and apply together or play safe and just apply alone?

Thanks for your take.

[March_LR14]

Hi,

You can apply for a basic DBS check yourself by visiting below link:

https://www.gov.uk/disclosure-and-barri ... complaints

You can also apply for PNC check by making a Subject access request. Please visit below link:

http://www.acro.police.uk/subject_access.aspx

I hope above helps.

Thanks

[Apam]

Apply for ilr with your wife and declare this offence. It will be upto the case worker to use his/ her discretion to decide weather this is a general grounds for refusal or not.
There have been lots of success stories on this forum for people who had unspent driving convictions who had ilr approved when they declared it.

[prem_singh123]

Hi
As far as I know conviction for non payment of tv licence is non disclosble offence so it will appear on your wife's CRB check. So don't worry about that.
And good luck with your ILR application.

[Deenfat]

Hi,

You can apply for a basic DBS check yourself by visiting below link:

https://www.gov.uk/disclosure-and-barri ... complaints

You can also apply for PNC check by making a Subject access request. Please visit below link:

http://www.acro.police.uk/subject_access.aspx

I hope above helps.

Thanks

Thanks for your advice - may have to try those checks but not sure what UKBA will be checking, whether it is basic DBS check or enhanced one

[Deenfat]

Apply for ilr with your wife and declare this offence. It will be upto the case worker to use his/ her discretion to decide weather this is a general grounds for refusal or not.
There have been lots of success stories on this forum for people who had unspent driving convictions who had ilr approved when they declared it.

Thanks for your take. However I am trying to avoid the risk of loosing my money if the decision is to be left to a case worker without any basis - what happens if s/he is in a bad mood when handling our case? There should be a clarity on what is and what is not considered.
Perhaps we can apply in person which reduce the risk as I can only lose few £ as oppose to £ '000s

[Deenfat]

Hi
As far as I know conviction for non payment of tv licence is non disclosble offence so it will appear on your wife's CRB check. So don't worry about that.
And good luck with your ILR application.

Thanks for the good news - I hope so.

I have not apply for hte ILR yet - It wont be due until late April, early May