ACRO No Live Trace

[birdy990]

Hi Everyone,

Looking for some guidance please if anyone has been in the same situation.

Just got my Police Check back and it says I have No Live Trace. I have requested a subject access request as I don’t understand what could be on there.

I did get a caution when I was 15 after getting into a fight with a girl but was told as I was a minor and providing I didn’t get into trouble again, this would be removed from my records after 5 years, so surely it can’t be that still on there?

Other than that the only time I have had any dealings with the police are when I’m the one making a complaint. 
The only real big thing I can think of that I was involved in was when I was working at a bank we were raided and of course I had to give evidence and see a line up of potential suspects but the guy was never caught and it never went to court.

Other than that nothing, not even anything driving related.

Any ideas of what it could be? I’ll be pretty pissed if it’s the caution I got nearly 20 years ago when I was told it would be removed from my records!!

[BendigoBoy]

Very probably the caution. If it was a formal caution. For immigration purposes, as I understand it, nothing is ever spent. (As always, I will happily stand corrected).  It won't be anything to do with the bank raid: it would be a fornal caution/conviction. I used to work in banking and had to testify in court against staff on many occasions, nothing ever showed on my record as a consequence (after all, it's not landed against you, you're doing a public service).

 

Hopefully when you get the response from your SAR, it'll give you some clarification.

Good luck, regardless. This is something lots of people have to address. It isn't necessarily anything that will stop a visa issuance.

[RubyMonday]

I really wouldn't worry about it, they mostly only care if it was something significant or relevent to you being in a foreign country. Normally it's if you got convicted and sentenced to jail time (including suspended) for 12 months or more total. If they said it would be stepped down after 5 years then it looks like that is what happened and why there is no "live" trace rather than listing it as a caution. Even if it was live and was listed on your certificate, a caution as a minor from 15 years ago is unlikely have any effect whatsoever on your application.

Edited December 29, 2023 by RubyMonday

[Nemesis]

4 hours ago, birdy990 said:

Hi Everyone,

Looking for some guidance please if anyone has been in the same situation.

Just got my Police Check back and it says I have No Live Trace. I have requested a subject access request as I don’t understand what could be on there.

I did get a caution when I was 15 after getting into a fight with a girl but was told as I was a minor and providing I didn’t get into trouble again, this would be removed from my records after 5 years, so surely it can’t be that still on there?

Other than that the only time I have had any dealings with the police are when I’m the one making a complaint. 
The only real big thing I can think of that I was involved in was when I was working at a bank we were raided and of course I had to give evidence and see a line up of potential suspects but the guy was never caught and it never went to court.

Other than that nothing, not even anything driving related.

Any ideas of what it could be? I’ll be pretty pissed if it’s the caution I got nearly 20 years ago when I was told it would be removed from my records!!

The caution might be still on file as it missed being weeded for some reason. It won't be anything to do with the other things you mention as those details wouldn't be held on the same part f the database as cautions/convictions.

When you get the SAR back, if the caution is on there, and you believe this is not correct, contact the Data Protection unit at your local police headquarters. If it has missed being weeded for some reason, then they can put in a request for it to be removed now. 

[paulhand]

3 hours ago, Nemesis said:

The caution might be still on file as it missed being weeded for some reason. It won't be anything to do with the other things you mention as those details wouldn't be held on the same part f the database as cautions/convictions.

When you get the SAR back, if the caution is on there, and you believe this is not correct, contact the Data Protection unit at your local police headquarters. If it has missed being weeded for some reason, then they can put in a request for it to be removed now. 

It won’t be removed from the files … “no live trace” means it has been stepped down as mentioned above and wouldn’t appear in, for example, a standard DBS check but it will always sit in the background on the record and appear in an ACRO check for immigration purposes. 

[Nemesis]

10 minutes ago, paulhand said:

It won’t be removed from the files … “no live trace” means it has been stepped down as mentioned above and wouldn’t appear in, for example, a standard DBS check but it will always sit in the background on the record and appear in an ACRO check for immigration purposes. 

I'm aware of "no live trace". However this is a slightly different issue. No saying it definitely applies, but its possible. 

There are still some very old records on file which should have been "weeded" under Data Protection - the rules would include a caution as described above. They come to light every so often, due to checks like this, and IF they were retained in error and should have been weeded under DP when back record conversion was being done years ago, then they can be put up for deletion now and would be totally deleted from record. 

Many people who had single offences, of a minor kind, or single cautions, had their records weeded and deleted under this policy. I wouldn't imagine there are many left now, but I certainly wouldn't rule it out.

 

I worked for PNC back in the day and was involved in the back-record-conversion, and weeding/destruction of many thousands of records. 

[paulhand]

2 minutes ago, Nemesis said:

I'm aware of "no live trace". However this is a slightly different issue. No saying it definitely applies, but its possible. 

There are still some very old records on file which should have been "weeded" under Data Protection - the rules would include a caution as described above. They come to light every so often, due to checks like this, and IF they were retained in error and should have been weeded under DP when back record conversion was being done years ago, then they can be put up for deletion now and would be totally deleted from record. 

Many people who had single offences, of a minor kind, or single cautions, had their records weeded and deleted under this policy. I wouldn't imagine there are many left now, but I certainly wouldn't rule it out.

 

I worked for PNC back in the day and was involved in the back-record-conversion, and weeding/destruction of many thousands of records. 

I stand corrected!

[Nemesis]

2 hours ago, paulhand said:

I stand corrected!

I guess its just not something many people outside of the relevant units would know about - and most of the weeding once done 15-20 years ago now as the records were all going onto PNC, even pre-dating DBS checking, as the police did all the Access to Children checks in those days as well