Like other states and territories in Australia, the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) has a ‘spent convictions’ regime which limits the circumstances in which a person convicted of a criminal offence can have that offence disclosed to others. The Spent Convictions Act 2000 (ACT) applies to offences against the laws of the ACT, as well as Commonwealth, state/territory and foreign offences. For example, if you reside in the ACT but have a conviction for an offence in New South Wales (NSW), the ACT spent convictions regime determines in what circumstances that offence is disclosable in the ACT.
There are several consequences of a spent conviction, including:
- You are not required to disclose information about the spent conviction to anyone.
- In general, it is an offence (punishable by imprisonment) for information about a spent conviction to be disclosed.
- A question about your criminal history is taken not to refer to the spent conviction, but to refer only to any convictions you have that are not spent.
- Other laws of the ACT that refer to a ‘conviction’ are taken not to refer to the spent conviction, but to refer only to any convictions you have that are not spent.
- A reference to a person’s character in another law of the ACT does not allow or require anyone to take the spent conviction into account.
Exceptions
There are several exceptions to the usual consequences of a spent conviction, including:
- If you are applying for certain jobs, such as a police officer, teacher, educator, childcare worker, doctor, nurse or casino employee
- If you are applying for a Working with Vulnerable People registration
- If you are applying for a security licence
- Proceedings before a court
If one of the above categories apply, relevant individuals or organisations are entitled (amongst other things) to know about your spent conviction.
Many offences for which a person is found guilty or convicted in the ACT are subject to the spent convictions regime. That includes offences for which an individual is sentenced to a term of imprisonment. However, if you were sentenced to a term of imprisonment of longer than 6 months, and you were 14 years or older when you committed the offence, your conviction cannot become spent.
Additionally, convictions or findings of guilt (including non-conviction orders) for sexual offences are not able to be spent, except for sexual offences where the person was not dealt with as an adult when convicted and the sentence received was either no term of imprisonment, or 6 months’ imprisonment or less. This is known as a ‘youth sexual offence conviction’. If you received a youth sexual offence conviction, you must apply to the court to have the conviction spent. The court has to be satisfied that it is in the public interest in deciding whether to order the conviction to be spent.
If you receive a non-conviction order for an offence, the offence is automatically spent on the making of that order by a court. If you received a good behaviour order alongside a non-conviction order, your offence is spent once the period of your good behaviour order is complete.
When does a conviction become spent?
The ACT deems an eligible conviction as ‘spent’ in a range of circumstances. For eligible offences committed by persons when they were adults, a conviction becomes spent on completion of a ‘crime-free period’. Your conviction will become spent if, following the completion of 10 consecutive years:
- You are not found guilty or convicted of an offence punishable by imprisonment;
- You are not in prison because of a conviction, or finding of guilt, for an offence;
- You are not unlawfully at large in relation to an offence.
For offences committed by children, the ‘crime-free period’ is 5 consecutive years.
Convictions for certain traffic offences, including driving with a prescribed concentration of alcohol and driving with a prescribed drug in oral fluid, are disregarded in calculating the crime-free period for a non-traffic offence. For example, if you were convicted of common assault in the ACT (an offence contrary to section 26 of the Crimes Act 1900), and 5 years later you were convicted of a driving with a prescribed concentration of alcohol offence (an offence contrary to section 19 of the Road Transport (Alcohol and Drugs) Act 1977), that drink drive offence does not affect or ‘restart’ the crime-free period for the common assault offence.
Should you or someone you know be charged with an offence, it is essential you receive legal advice from an experienced criminal defence lawyer at any early stage. To discuss your options, call Hugo Law Group in Sydney, NSW (02 9696 1361), Canberra (02 5104 9640) or Perth (08 6255 6909) to make an appointment to speak to one of our lawyers.
