Can I Receive Compensation From The CICA If I Have Criminal Convictions?

A question we commonly receive in Criminal Injury matters, is whether or not it is possible to receive CICA compensation if the claimant has criminal convictions.

Answer:

Simply put – perhaps.

As a government run scheme, the CICA are extremely stringent on whether applicants for compensation have UNSPENT criminal convictions. This is at either the time of their application or throughout their claims duration.

What is a criminal conviction?

A criminal conviction is a punishment awarded to an individual who has been found guilty of a crime. For example a prison sentence, driving ban or caution.

What is an unspent conviction?

Under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, all convictions have a certain period of time before offenders no longer have to legally disclose them. In other words, when offenders are considered rehabilitated in the eyes of the law.

Convictions are considered unspent until this period of time is over – this is known as the rehabilitation period. Once this period of time has completed, offenders are no longer required to disclose the conviction and it is known as spent.

In regard to the CICA, a spent conviction is no barrier to a claim, whereas an unspent conviction is unacceptable. It does not matter if a conviction is not related to the incident and injuries you are looking to claim for, what matters is if it is spent.

When is my conviction spent?

This depends on the type and length of the conviction. For example a fine is spent within one year of being given, whereas a 6 month prison sentence will require the whole prison sentence plus 2 years until it is spent.

If you want to work out when your convictions will become spent, please click here for a useful web page from Unlock which details common convictions and their rehabilitation periods.

What does this mean for my CICA claim?

If you have any unspent convictions before submitting a claim to the CICA, it is advisable to wait for these to become spent before completing your application if possible. However applicants must be aware that they generally only have 2 years from the date their incident happens to bring a claim.

This means that if you receive a conviction with a lengthier rehabilitation period, you may be unable to bring a successful claim at all. For example:

In May 2019, Peter received a 3 year driving ban. Later that year, he was mugged by 2 men who stole his watch and broke his jaw. Peter wants to make a CICA claim for his broken jaw. In this situation Peter would not be able to claim successfully.

His 3 year driving ban would not be spent until 3 years after the date he received this, which would be May 2022. As CICA claims generally need to be brought within 2 years of an incident happening (in this case by 2021), Peter would not have chance to bring a claim for his broken jaw before his conviction was spent.

What happens if I try to claim with unspent criminal convictions?

The CICA will review your initial application and will reject your claim for unspent criminal convictions.

Can I challenge a rejection from the CICA for criminal convictions?

Not successfully. Although this could be attempted, rejections from the CICA for unspent criminal convictions are one of the most final rejections presented. This is because it is a definite matter, there is no way to argue a conviction was not received and the rehabilitation period for these are fixed in law.

It must be noted that as a government run scheme the CICA have a service level agreement with the police and will always find out about any unspent criminal convictions.

Can I bring another claim after I had one rejected for unspent criminal convictions?

Not if it is for the same incident and injuries. You cannot bring a claim twice for the same incident and injuries. Once you have claimed for an incident and the injuries received, that is the only claim that can be brought.

However, if you wished to bring a new claim for a completely separate incident and injuries after your convictions are spent, this should not be an issue.

What if I receive a conviction during my claim?

Should an applicant receive a criminal conviction during the time their claim is ongoing, this can cause their claim to be rejected if the conviction has a rehabilitation period. Again, it does not matter if the conviction was nothing to do with the claim circumstances, what matters is if you end up having an unspent conviction.

What if I have impending convictions?

Impending convictions are those which are in the process of being decided. For example where an applicant has not yet attended court for sentencing. If an impending conviction results in no conviction being awarded, or a conviction with no rehabilitation period (like a caution), these should not impact your claim.

Whereas if the impending conviction results in a conviction with a rehabilitation period, your claim would be unsuccessful as it would result in an applicant having an unspent conviction. Within the time taken for a conviction to be decided, the CICA will put claims on hold until the status of the conviction is known.

Takeaway advice:

Of course it would be best to avoid receiving any criminal convictions both in regard to CICA claims and life generally. However sometimes these things cannot be avoided. If you are unsure whether your convictions are spent, you should request this information from the police.

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