QLD Spent Conviction - Living in QLD with Convictions in NSW?

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Tryingtobebetter

Active Member
6 January 2020
7
0
31
Ok thought I would write back and share some knowledge with you.

Since writing this I did another national police check and came back with no disclosures also done through qld police. I contacted ACIC as to why I now have two clean police clearances and one that is not.

The reason for the above comes down to which state the authorised police check organisation is based during the vetting stage. The organisation who does your police check will apply their legislation at the vetting stage if there are disclosure about your record. As QLD has a spent conviction scheme of anything less than 30 months imprisonment after ten years this was applied to my NPC in final vetting stage. My other NPC was done by an organisation with its head quarters in nsw so discloures were made.

So in my circumstance it depends where you get the check done and through.
 

Tryingtobebetter

Active Member
6 January 2020
7
0
31
My apologies, I missed that both were national checks. Regardless, the NSW provisions apply with respect to NSW offences. Where you live now has no bearing on whether the conviction is considered spent.

Ok thought I would write back and share some knowledge with you.

Since writing this I did another national police check and came back with no disclosures also done through qld police. I contacted ACIC as to why I now have two clean police clearances and one that is not.

The reason for the above comes down to which state the authorised police check organisation is based during the vetting stage. The organisation who does your police check will apply their legislation at the vetting stage if there are disclosure about your record. As QLD has a spent conviction scheme of anything less than 30 months imprisonment after ten years this was applied to my NPC in final vetting stage. My other NPC was done by an organisation with its head quarters in nsw so discloures were made.

So in my circumstance it depends where you get the check done and through. NSW legislation will not always apply to past convictions.
 

Scruff

Well-Known Member
25 July 2018
902
133
2,389
NSW
Ahh - it all makes perfect sense now.

In NSW, convictions can not become spent if a prison sentence of more than 6 months was imposed - but in QLD, it's 30 months. Since your sentence was 9 months, any NPC obtained through NSW should show your conviction, while an NPC obtained through QLD shouldn't.

It's good that you found out what was going on - there's an interesting tip in all of this that might help someone in the future.

(Additional note: For anyone reading this who doesn't know, a suspended sentence is still a sentence of imprisonment for the purpose of spent conviction schemes. It is the "sentence" itself that counts, not whether or not you were actually incarcerated.)