Clean slate for minor crimes

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NEW laws allowing offenders to have their criminal records wiped after five years of good behaviour will be investigated by the State Government.

 

Allow them to get on with their lives having paid their debt to societyThe move comes after peak welfare body Offenders Aid & Rehabilitation Services of South Australia called for "spent convictions" legislation to give minor offenders a "second chance".

 

Attorney-General Michael Atkinson has asked his department to examine how similar legislation operates in other states and overseas.

 

Mr Atkinson said the department was expected to report its findings and recommendations by June.

 

Under the legislation OARS SA is pushing for, those convicted as a child of a minor offence – such as shoplifting small items – could have their criminal records erased if they had not reoffended within five years of committing the offence.

 

For adults convicted of a minor criminal offence, the same would apply after 10 years.

 

The legislation would apply only to those who had served sentences of 30 months or less and been fined up to $10,000.

 

OARS SA chief executive Leigh Garrett said a minor criminal conviction should not be a "life sentence".

 

"People offend, they pay the price but if they behave, why would we not want them to have a second chance to live in society without some of the baggage that gets carried from making one mistake?" he said.

 

Previous attempts in the 1990s failed to have spent convictions legislation introduced in South Australia.

 

Mr Garrett said thousands of people across the state each year were convicted of a minor criminal offence. This hindered employment, overseas travel, insurance, bank loans and accommodation.

 

He said the legislation would "assist the long-term rehabilitation of minor offenders and allow them to get on with their lives, having paid their debt to society".

 

At present, a magistrate has the discretion not to impose a conviction where an offence is trivial.

 

Mr Atkinson said it was difficult to balance the "competing interests of forgiving the offender who has lived it down while keeping track of the offender who is living it up".

 

"We need to be cautious to ensure that the records of offenders who pose a risk of further offending are not expunged," he said

 

Independent MP Bob Such has instructed the parliamentary counsel to draw up a Bill based on similar legislation in other states.

 

"I have had people in their 50s and 60s who hold very good jobs who've said to me they have got this stain on their life they want to get rid of but can't," Mr Such said.

 

Former Law Society president Chris Kourakis, QC, favoured exploring alternatives to "blanket rules" annulling minor convictions.

 

"An alternative might be to allow magistrates and judges to make recommendations at the time of sentencing allowing the conviction to be expiated after a number of years," he said.

 

Opposition legal affairs spokesman Robert Lawson said the Liberal Party had long opposed spent convictions legislation because it enabled offenders to "perpetrate a lie".

 

However, he would examine a new proposal because the party was "sympathetic to people who have been convicted and rehabilitated themselves".

 

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