Would you hire a painter/odd job person who had a criminal background?

[Beezknees]

Just got me musing really. My DF has been in and out of prison as long as I remember. I am NC with him but I hear things through the grapevine. He has been out of prison for 10 years, fair enough and now is self employed as a painter/odd job man, presumably because he struggles to find employment due to his record. Would you be comfortable having someone doing jobs in your house who has a criminal background? (Previous convictions are non violent but things like burglary, fraud, selling drugs, etc)

I think people deserve a chance to try to turn their lives around but knowing my DF the way I do I would not trust him in my house.

Not if I knew no but how would you even know anyway, like if I hire a gardener how would I know if he has a criminal record 🤷‍♀️

It all depends on what they did, when it was done, how often it was done and how long have they been clean for and what was their attitude to their previous behaviour People can change

But in the real world, you dont know who you are hiring unless they are from a well recognised company that states they have checked all of their employees crb/dbs or whatever its called

NEVER forget that many never get caught and therefore could be the most nasty people but unless they have been caught, you don't know

Therefore, using ones sensible brain, always consider whats on show at home, who will be home, can you leave them alone and put steable stuff out of their way, eg cash, julllery, laptops - we've had dozens of workers in our homes over the years, all were ok and a few years ago a young,carpenter that had split up with his gitlfriend even hinted that I was a MILF, lol, made my days as compliments are rare - not to worry as I'm past the cheating stage.

I was surprised by the stats so did a check myself. Firstly, the Home Office doesn't keep track of this information so there are no hard numbers. Secondly, there's an element of guesswork with any stats around this because many people with a criminal record have commited multiple offences. So you need to have an idea of the distribution. Thirdly the vast majority of convictions don't carry a custodial sentence which presumably are the criminals we are worried about. There's a world of difference between a murderer and someone who got a caution for doing graffiti yet both of then 'have a criminal record'.

We hired a builder with a criminal record. I felt very reassured as he told us upfront, along the lines of “if you Google me XYZ will come up, so best I just tell you” it was several years previous, related to supplying class C drugs, and he said he was happy for us to ask any questions about his conviction etc. He was a nice man, his labourers were all lovely and they did the job to a fantastic standard.

So you may well have hired someone in the past who has buglary conviction ,s ?

I'v hired someone with criminal convictions before - GBH, drugs etc. He had obviously turned his life around and was good at what he did.

I'd be wary of having thief in the house though - not that I'd fully trust any tradesperson in the house.

Not a chance

I know a few people who went to prison when they were young that now have similar thriving businesses but I also think if I knew them and the crime was severe then no

My cousin used to work for an agency, which helped former prisoners to get work. They did need to be referred from the probation service and have to show a determination to live honest lives. All clients were aware that they'd been in prison and accepted that. There were all sorts, thieves, recovered addicts, violent crimes, but they never accepted sex offenders, or those who'd preyed on vulnerable people.

As far as I'm aware, it was very successful.

And even then, most convictions become "spent" after a certain amount of time. If a conviction is "spent" then if you ask a person they can lawfully say "No I do not have a conviction".

If an employer later finds out that an employee has a spent conviction and fires them then that is unfair dismissal which will lead to a claim against the employer.

Sentences of less than 1 year become spent after 12 months and sentences of 1 to 4 years become spent after 4 years. Things get more complicated with sentences of more than 4 years, some are spent after 7 years but certain violent offences are never spent.

So, for example, Joe is sentenced to 6 months, for let's say burglary, in Jan 2024. He will be released from prison typically in April 2024 and be on licence until July 2024. He will have to declare his burglary conviction for the next 12 months until July 2025 but after then can say that he does not have a conviction.

Luke is sentenced to 12 months in prison in Jan 2024. He will be released from prison typically in July 2024 and be on licence until Jan 2025. He will have to declare his conviction for the next four years until Jan 2029.

There are some jobs where people still have to disclose spent convictions. You will see job adverts that require a "standard" or "enhanced" DBS check. This generally involves jobs having contact with children or social work or healthcare.

It also involves jobs like police officers, prison guards, solicitors, accountants etc

No, but how would anyone know?

You wouldn’t know, unless it was a very small and gossipy community. A tradesperson is never alone in my house anyway.

If I could know, I would probably feel uneasy at certain convictions such as any violence such ABH/GBH/manslaughter, sexual assault. I think something like death by dangerous driving wouldn’t count as a violent conviction for me and something I’d hoped they’d learnt from and had a second chance.

Specifically with your dad being a painter and a history of burglary/fraud, that wouldn’t bother me. The room he would be working in would be empty for him to do his job properly (criminal conviction or not) and if he was in any other room (other than the bathroom to use the toilet) I’d ask him to leave straight away but I’d ask any painter wandering into other rooms to leave straight away. I wouldn’t worry about him scoping my house out because if he’s a decent painter he can make a lot more money as a tradesperson than he can from the resale of stolen goods.

But you just don’t know, which is why most people go off their gut instinct.

It's not as high as that. I think you probably mean adult population.

There was a FOI request to the Home Office in 2022 to which they replied that there were 12,282,131 people on the Police National Computer with a criminal conviction.

The population of England & Wales in 2022 was 60.2 million, Scotland was 5.4 million and Northern Ireland 1.9 million so about 67.5 million in total.

That gives 18.2% of the population.

If you take only those aged 15+ then you get to about 22% or those aged 18+ you get about 24%.

Splitting that 18+ figure out by sex gives around 37% for men and 9% for women.

EDIT

I found the source of the 27% figure and it says "working population" which is probably about right if you're counting it as 18-64