Australia Criminal Records

Australia Criminal Records

In Australia, criminal records run almost synonymous with convictions. Therefore, in Australia,
after you are convicted at a hearing or trial of a criminal offense, the court will document this
record of conviction against you. Also, Australia criminal records of convictions are created after
you plead guilty to an offense. The conviction will appear on your Australia criminal records but
may be removed.

Unlike many other countries, Australia laws allow someone with criminal records to be cleared of
a conviction. Australia criminal records of convictions may be cleared. The usual spent period is
ten years. After the passage of ten years, it is possible to apply for convictions to be declared
"spent." This means that your Australia criminal records of conviction may be cleared out of your
record. There are some circumstances also wherein the court will impose a spent conviction
order at the time of conviction.

Applying for a Spent Conviction Order at the Time of Sentencing

Australian law provides that criminal records of convictions may be cleared after ten years
passage of time. However, the court retains the power to pass a spent conviction order. There
are cases wherein the court has the right to declare Australia criminal records of convictions
spent at the time when sentence is passed. In fact, the only time that the court cannot make a
spent conviction order is if you are sentenced to one of the following:

- A term of imprisonment
- A suspended term of imprisonment
- An Intensive Supervision Order.

Aside from those mentioned above, during any passing of sentence, the court may declare the
conviction spent and wipe it off the Australia criminal records of the subject.

In order for a court to make a spent conviction order, it must first decide that you are unlikely to
commit such an offense again. This means that it has weigh down the odds of your committing
the same criminal offense. After making such a decision, the court may then opt to clear your
Australia criminal records of conviction.

Additionally, the court must also decide that you should be relieved of the negative effects of a
conviction. This may be because the offense itself was trivial. It may also be because of your
previous good character. Therefore, it is a good idea to bring character references with you to
court to show that you are a person of good character. However, the circumstances of the offense
and the lack of a prior record are also relevant and bear much weight on the court's decision.