Will I have a criminal record?

3 takeways from the Registration of Criminals Act

1. The stress of facing a criminal charge does not merely come from the present, but also extends to the future. All accused persons worry about whether a conviction will tarnish their future by leaving a criminal record on their names.
2. We understand your need to be clear about the consequences a conviction will have on your future. To reduce your uncertainty and worry, we present 3 takeaways from the Registration of Criminals Act (Chapter 268) (“RCA”). To remember these 3 takeways, ask yourself:

C – Crime

3. Since you are worried about having a criminal record (i.e. a record of a crime), let’s start with the meaning of crime. For there to be a criminal record, you must have committed a ‘registrable crime’. A registrable crime is one that falls within the First and Second Schedules of the RCA¹. As is expected, registrable crimes are usually more severe offences. Common examples are: kidnapping, sexual offences, and consumption of drugs. A less common (but interesting) example is using force or threat to prevent someone over 21 from contracting a valid marriage²; failure of a secondhand goods dealer to maintain proper records for at least 5 years³.
4. So, if your crime does not fall within the First and Second Schedules, you may lawfully say you have no record of a criminal conviction⁴.

D – Discretion

5. All is not lost if your crime is a ‘registrable crime’. The Commissioner of Police retains a discretion to dispense with registering you as a criminal if all following conditions are met⁵:
6. 1. your crime falls within the Second Schedule;
   2. the punishment meted out is a fine not exceeding $1000; and
   3. you have not previously been registered as a criminal.

6. From the above, to qualify for this discretion, the punishment must not be a jail term (except in default of a fine), and you must have a clean record prior to being convicted.

S – Spent

7. If you have committed a registrable crime and there is no discretion to dispense with registering you as a criminal, you can only rely on time to ‘wash away’ the criminal record. This means the record may become spent⁶ after you have stayed crime-free for at least 5 years. This 5-year period starts when you are released from prison⁷. Once the record is spent, you may lawfully say you have no record of a criminal conviction⁸. But it doesn’t mean that a spent record will never see the light again. If you are investigated or charged in court over a new offence, you may not deny the criminal record, notwithstanding that it is spent⁹.
8. Furthermore, not all criminal records can become spent. For instance, a criminal record for an offence in the Third Schedule cannot be spent¹⁰. Likewise if the punishment meted out for committing that offence includes a jail term that exceeds 3 months¹¹. The idea is that if you are convicted of a severe crime, on top of the (longer) jail sentence meted out, you have to live with the record for life as a form of extra punishment. So if you have not committed a crime yet, think carefully before doing so!
9. With these 3 takeways – Crime, Discretion, Spent – you feel more confident about whether you can lawfully say you have no criminal record. So, if you are asked this sensitive issue during a job interview, remember: Can Don’t Say?