To tell you never to accept a caution?

[brasty]

Or at least not without legal advice.

The police often offer cautions in cases where they know there is not enough evidence to secure a conviction. So if you refuse a caution in these cases, the case will simply be dropped. The caution is offered so that the police can officially say the crime has been cleared and dealt with. But many people accept cautions when they are innocent, because of fear of going to court.

Just never accept it regardless as it goes on your criminal record. I'm pretty sure when the police look into the case and are closing it down you need to then make your plea not sure let me sleep on it is an option. The cps do not spend taxpayers money on something that court will throw out. Obviously if under arrest the case will get looked at by the cps even then there is often not enough evidence to go on and sadly petty criminals or those who have just slapped somebody know that leaving the victims in despair knowing they never got justice. In my training we were advised never to accept a caution as it would affect our career

Greebz: The identity cards act 2006;
“Section 25(5) creates an offence for a person to have in his possession, without reasonable excuse, one of the following: a false identity document; or an identity document that has been improperly obtained; or an identity document that relates to someone else”.

“Section 26 defines what is meant by an "identity document". This includes documents that already exist such as passports, driving licences, immigration documents such as visas, as well as other existing identity documents issued within or outside the UK.”

OK, forged or nicked, fair enough, those are against the law in their own right. But this allows for documents that simply belong to someone else. In the case I dealt with the Caution had been issued and accepted with no regard for the ‘reasonableness’ of the excuse, to a frightened young adult with English as a second language.

ill say this re the dove.....

the police often sit open mouthed at the shite we get told to deal with now. it seems we are a customer service rather than a police force and the customer is always right. so some idiot reports a letter being sent asking the where abouts of a dove - that call should never ever have made ti trhough the call handler - sorry its not a police matter - bye.
instead someone said yes sir of course sir three bags full sir and allocated it to an officer to deal with.
its not harassment - a harassment is a course of conduct and that has to be 2 occasions within a 6 month period - likely the officer felt as badly and as stupid as humanly possible knocking on your door to say dont ask the nice (batty fruit loop time wasting eejit) lady where the dove went.
the calibre of jobs being given to officers now is shocking. not even remotely a police matter but the powers that be are so worried about customer focus they give us any old shite to deal with.

Wish someone had given me this advice 12 years ago 😫 I had never been in a police station, never been in trouble....but now I have a caution.
I was with ex from the age of 16 for 18 yrs, two children and our own house etc.
After being a sahm for 10 years I got a part-time job, ex still expected that I would do everything in the house and a few weeks in the shit hit the fan. I had rushed home from work, put a quick tea on as I was going out to a class at the gym, sadly the oven chips ended up being a little overdone. Ex came in, sat down to his tea on the table and complained, a Row ensued and I chucked my plate of food at him, and left for my class....when I got home nobody was in, turned out I’d gashed his head, he had rung MY dad to take him to a&e AND rang the police!!!! I didn’t hear a thing from them until maybe two weeks later when we had made friends -laying in bed one Saturday morning and his phone rang, I heard him say that he didn’t want to press charges etc explaining we were reconciled, they insisted he pass the phone over and at that point told me that if I didn’t get myself to the station across town within half an hour they’d come and arrest me. Naturally I was terrified!!! I ended up taking a caution as I was terrified and didn’t know what else to do. Obviously now I realise that I was seriously ducked over 😫

linds I would say you were lucky to have gotten away with just a caution. How on earth can you think you are hard done by?

@Lindsxxx seriously? You assaulted your husband.

@Lindsxxx seriously? You assaulted your husband

Who then withdrew the charges. Not saying it's right but had it being the other way round I imagine it would have been dropped straight away.
My sister had the police out to her 15 times in the 2 years her ex was beating the shit out of her. Each time dropped the charges and he never got so much as a warning never mind a caution.

It’s not up to an individual to press or withdraw charges so that’s a moot point.

It’s not up to an individual to press or withdraw charges so that’s a moot point.

That may be the case but each time he talked my sister into not going further with it/withdrawing statements...however it works... it got completely dropped.
He broke her nose twice, she still has all the photos from then and they are horrific. This was only 5 years ago.

Yep. An ex friend falsely alleviated I was harassing her (in response to my actual harassment^^ report to the police 🙄). I did not sign the caution because I did nothing wrong!!! She must have signed hers because it showed on her DBS (too right)!

Alleged not alleviated 😩

I agree.

For anyone wondering about how easy it is to give one, my sister has Learning difficulties and autism. At her (volunteer) work a sting was set up to catch a thief and she was videod moving something.

The video didn’t show she stuffed it in an empty locker and then went home. Stupid logic yes, but not intent to steal. She was heavily bullied by staff there, I’ve always wondered if it was even more set up, before the incident she was mocked quite a bit and was in a stupid mood.

The police scared her in a station and she was confused (didn’t tell them she has needs, but not really that clear in speech anyway! It’s obvious.) and she accepted a caution. They didn’t call family (she’d need prompting to think of it) and after she said she didn’t understand or remember most questions so I don’t know what they really said.

She hasn’t worked since as every volunteer role or nursery support role sees it. Been a nightmare. Even now if it was retracted she doesn’t have the confidence to work or volunteer.

Easy for police wasn’t that, easy caution to give out

I accepted a caution for something I most certainly didn't do when I was 15. I had no idea what was happening. I was standing at the desk saying "but I didn't do it" while they cautioned me. :(

They wanted me out of the way. I wanted to go. I can't even remember if I had an appropriate adult. Im pretty sure I lied about my age so they didn't call my mum and wake her.

Abso-fucking-lutely vicar

wow, yeah I do think I was hard done by. It was an argument. I threw my plate, ok so it connected with him, unlucky, I’m not usually such a great shot unintentionally, have none of you ever thrown anything in anger?? It’s not like I’d ever had contact with the police before, I’m as bloody strait laced as they come, indeed he realised how daft it was to have rung the police, I suspect his reaction, same as mine, was a knee jerk reaction. It was a silly accident at most. I didn’t physically lay a finger on him!!!

I have never chucked a plate at someone who then ended up in hospital. I've read it all now. Because you didn't lay a finger on him then you don't think it's assault?! And don't blame him for calling the police, good on him.

wow, yeah I do think I was hard done by. It was an argument. I threw my plate, ok so it connected with him, unlucky, I’m not usually such a great shot unintentionally, have none of you ever thrown anything in anger??

I have never thrown a plate at anyone in anger, no. It wasn't "unlucky" that the plate hit him. Dropping something on a plate that (somehow) caused a plate to ricochet up and hit him would have been bad luck. There was no bad luck. You threw a plate in his direction and it hit him. Simple cause and effect relationship here.

I'm tended to think your ex should have pressed charges because you seem to have no grasp on the fact that you assaulted your husband and the caution was more than justified.

The only luck in this scenario is that he wasn't blinded or left disfigured by the plate hitting him.

I didn’t physically lay a finger on him!!!

Do try to engage your brain. If I whip out a semi-automatic and fire five rounds into a by-stander, I haven't "physically laid a finger" on them either.

Honestly.

I think you were hard done by.

Why do you think she was hard done by?

Because I have worked with many cases where violent men get no criminal charges of any kind. If they refuse a caution, too many get away with nothing.
If she had not accepted a caution, I am sure it would have been dropped.

Why do you think she was hard done by?

Bratsy indicated earlier in the thread that even people who are guilty should "consider carefully" before accepting a caution.

So I think her position is perfectly compatible with feeling the PP was hard done by.

Men do report domestic violence much sooner and for less serious incidents, than women do mind you.

My ex boyfriend was punched in the face by a police officer, in self defence he hit the police officer back (admittedly breaking his nose).

that's not self defence that's retaliation

Butchy I think everyone including guilty people should have legal advice. In some cases that will mean accepting a caution.

If she had not accepted a caution, I am sure it would have been dropped.

That doesn't follow. Your previous paragraph states that violent men can get off with no criminal charges/cautions.

If there is any evidence to suggest that females are treated more harshly vis-a-vis violent assaults, isn't it just as likely the CPS would have thrown the book at the PP and charged her?