How To Override A Simple Caution ...

[hopeless244]

last week i was arrested and put in a cell for 5 hours due to assault charges that happened abroad with no evidence and no witness , cos i admitted it they gave me a simple caution but the assault was in self defence and that my partner at the time had ocd and that she was biting chunks outer me and advice ?

[Buenchico]

You can't be cautioned unless you've admitted the offence so, unless there are very exceptional circumstances (such as being able to prove that you only admitted the offence due to duress) a caution can't be removed.

However a caution is immediately 'spent' for the purposes of employment and insurance applications (except for employment where the Exceptions Order, under the Rehabilitation of Offender Act [as amended], applies). So it's not particularly important unless you're thinking of applying for employment working with children or vulnerable adults (or within the administration of justice).

Most employers aren't entitled to a criminal records (DBS) check on their employees, so it's unlikely that an employer could find out about your caution. Even if a DBS check is required, your caution won't appear on it after 6 years.

[Buenchico]

Just another thought though:
You can't be prosecuted for an offence which occurred abroad unless Parliament has passed a law specifically allowing it. While murder and manslaughter abroad, for example, can be prosecuted in the UK, most types of assault can't be.

So I can't see how you can be offered a caution for something for which you couldn't be prosecuted for. It might be worth seeking the advice of a solicitor to see if my line of reasoning here means that your caution wasn't valid.

[Peter Pedant]

.
I have to say I thought you were *** if you had admitted an offence.
However you say that the events happened abroad,
and so it raised the question about whether events that are not a crime are cautionable.

Since an appeal would be on how the system went wrong and not on the facts ( JR) it would be appealable - BUT judicial reviews start off at £2000, and it is clear you dont have that sort of money.

http://ukcriminallawblog.com/2013/02/22/cautions-adults/
has this:

If I have accepted a caution can I appeal?
Generally no. There is no appeal body as such, but you can Judicially Review a decision to administer (see R v Metropolitan Police, ep Thompson [1997] 2 Cr App R 49). This is a very expensive procedure and is hard to win. You have to show that something has gone badly wrong, such as there not being a proper admission. A good example from 2012 showing the issues involved, and the difficulty in winning an argument, see the case of Lee v Chief Constable of Essex Police [2012] EWHC 283 (Admin).


So in short the answer is "yes-maybe" if you have money like Bill Gates....

[Peter Pedant]

from the 2012 case:

You have obviously done all the work, Mr Holdcroft. So we are talking about total costs of something in the region of £5,250.

wow

[Buenchico]

I'm wholly with PP (when it comes to warning about the possible costs of a court case) if the police refuse to accept that they've made a mistake. However it might be that an approach from a solicitor to the Chief Constable (who would, I'm sure, refer the matter to his force's own solicitor) would be enough to obtain an admission that the police acted beyond their powers when issuing the caution, thus forcing them to remove it.

So, even if you're not mega-rich, it might still be worth seeking the advice of a solicitor.