SIA Licences – Vehicle Immobilising – Criminality

Offences

The offences we consider relevant to licensing are grouped into two lists A and B. Which lists applies to you depends on the type of work you do. If you are front line staff both lists will apply to you. If you are non-front line staff, for instance if you are a director or partner of a company supplying vehicle immobilisers, then only list A will apply.

If your conviction was for an offence named in these lists as a statutory offence, but at the time of your conviction it was an offence at common law, or was defined in an earlier or later Act, we will regard it in the same way as the listed offences. Also note that in some cases, the offence listed may cover several offences within the same category. If your offence is not in either list, then we will not take it into account when making a decision on your licence application.

Read more about these offences

Serious offences
You will see that some offences on the lists are marked with a X or a +. We regard these offences as serious. Others, which are marked with a * are considered significant but are less serious. The seriousness of your offence is important, as you will need to be free of the effects of a conviction, caution or warning for a clear period of at least two years (for significant offences) or at least five years (for serious offences or mixture of both). The starting point for the calculation, that is the date of a caution, or warning, or the end of a sentence or penalty as appropriate, is described in the table below as ‘the last relevant date’.

If your criminal record is such that we need to consider additional factors then we shall consider the following:

• The total record of all serious offences. A criminal record showing that there has been a pattern of serious offending over a number of years will be treated more seriously than a single episode of offending.
• The total record of all other significant offences in the 2-5 year period before your application. A criminal record showing that there has been a pattern of other significant offences over a number of years will be treated more seriously than a single episode of offending.
• For the most recent offence, warnings or cautions or (where there has been a conviction) the nature of the sentence and the length of time from when the sentence ended beyond the minimum requirement of two or five years.

In applying the above factors to the circumstances of your case we will give you credit if you do not have a pattern of offending. Also, we will give you credit for every year you are clear from criminal activity. We assess this period from the date of the last caution, warning or from the expiry of the sentence or penalty. This may mean that we will require a further period beyond the minimum period before we consider you are suitable to be licensed. Longer sentences have a greater impact on your eligibility than shorter sentences.

Evidence of rehabilitation will be taken into account to determine licence eligibility when an applicant has been free from any relevant criminal activity for a significant period of time beyond the minimum requirement of two or five years.

Charges awaiting trial
If, when we process your application, there are outstanding charges against you for relevant offences, then we will wait until the courts have determined the outcome of the charges before making a decision.

Charges awaiting trial
If, when we process your application, there are outstanding charges against you for relevant offences, then we will wait until the courts have determined the outcome of the charges before making a decision.

Ex-juvenile offenders
If offences which you committed as a juvenile remain on your record then we will take them into account as we do any other offence. We will see how relevant, how serious, and how recent they were, but we will also consider your age at the time of the offence.

We will not consider criminal records gained between the ages of 10 and 12 unless they relate to extremely serious offences as described in the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984. We will, however, look at any serious offences committed between the ages of 12 and 15 and all relevant offences if committed between the ages of 16 and 17.

Other criteria
As well as checking your identity, training, and criminal record, we may also look at three other types of information.

• Mental health
  We will take into account any recent mental health problems where you have had to be detained in the five years prior to your application. We will not seek out information about any mental health problems which have not resulted in detention.
• Use of other information
  We will not normally seek out information about you that may be held by organisations we work with – such as the police and local authorities – which has not been tested in the courts. But if such information is offered to us, then we will consider it. In this context ‘information’ will normally mean compelling evidence of relevant criminal activity, anti-social behaviour or criminal association. If we do not grant you a licence on the basis of this information then we will tell you, and you can, if you wish, challenge the decision and the information on which it was based.
• The right to work
  We may seek information to confirm that you have the right to remain and to work in this country.