Not sure what will happen if my husband gets a criminal record

[EzraBlake]

This is my first post. I have no one to talk to about this as we have kept this a sectrey from our friends and family.
Some time ago my husband was arrested for stealing from his employer, it was goods to sell not money. I had no idea until the police turned up at the house. After 18 months of the police trying to get evidence they have finally charged him and he will appear in court tomorrow. I think the only evidence they have is that he admitted it.
The last 18 months have been hell, he kept being bailed again and again due to the police not having enough evidence. The only reason he admitted to the police is that I too was arrested and questioned. This was so traumatic as i had no idea he had even taken anything, let alone been involved myself.
I have spent the last 18 months worring about this, I've no idea what will happen at court tomorrow.
Obviously he lost his job with his old firm, but got another job quickly as a manager of a hospice. He had to be CRB checked for the job, as there are vulnerable people there (terminal etc) even though he only works in the office. Obviously nothing showed on the crb as he hadn't been charged then.
I guess with a criminal record he will lose this job.
I am devestated as he loves this job and is happy there, he has been working there 16 months and has never had a day off work.
We have two children to support. I currently work 4 days a week teaching in a college.
I am scared that if his case makes the press, both mine and my husbands reputation will be ruined, and I we wouldn't cope on my wage alone. We've already lost £200 per month tax credits from april due to the changes.
My husband is the nicest kindest person I know. the only reason he did what he did was because we were in so much debt and were frightened we would lose the house, he was working two jobs at the time - 64 hours a week, so was sleep deprived and under stress. I know that is no excuse but I can see how he stupidly thought he could help.
We have since got help from the cccs and are on a debt management plan, somehting we should've done ages ago, so the debt is managed now, although our monthly outgoings are still so high we're lucky to have £10 left at th eend of the month.
I have gone from angry to sad to worried non stop for 18 months, I just want it to be over, but i'm not sure how we are going to cope or whats going to happen.

i can't imagine why this would make the press unless his job was incredibly high profile etc

i don't know what will happen in court, or what the outcome will be, but i am sure you can work through it.
money-wise if he is unemployed there will be benefits you can claim though

i would strongly suggest talking to someone in real life about this though, i bet it woul dbe a huge relief to have someone who knows what is going on? don't you think?

sorry op but it would make our local press thisisyesterday

CRB checks have to be done every 3 or 5 years iirc, THEN it's at the discretion of his employer wether or not they keep him on. So he'll be ok for now, although I don't know if not telling them is a good thing to do.

Does he have plans to tell his employers when the court case is over?

Thanks for all your replies.
I really don't know how to tell anyone now, it's gone on too long.
Ive seen less trivial things than this make it in the local papers. I will be devestated if our childrens's school / friends find out.
I'm not sure what he is going to do about work. Yes they crb check every 3 - 5 years, i'm not sure what would be best to do reagrding his job to be honest.
It's got to the point over the past few weeks that my husband refuses to talk about it or the various scenarios that might happen. I think he is still in shock / denial that this is actually happening.
I, of course, being the practical one is trying to keep it all going.

thing is, if it's theft & he's working in the office oif a hospice I can't see how he would keep his job as their is a lot of trust involved & vulnerable people. I imagine he would get a fine or community service& if he's pleading guilty will have that to his credit along with the mitigating circumstances

Would it maybe not look better to the employer if he told them about it before it came to court, so it shows he has been honest then? If they are at all sympathetic people, he could explain why he got into that situation, and how things have changed now.

If I was an employer, I think I would be more likely to keep someone on if they had told me about the conviction themselves.

Sorry to hear of your troubles it must be a very stressful time for you both, good that you have arranged to manage your debt problems as this will help to relieve the pressure of calls and letters arriving.

With reference to your DH CRB, I have in place a suitability agreement where the duty lies with the employee to inform management of any convictions they gat after employment, safeguarding in care is tightening up now since the appalling events in care / nurseries have come to light.

As an owner/manager in the care sector I would certainly be more amenable to a member of staff who came forward rather than to hear about it from someone else (and have been) court appearances are a matter of public record and quite often in our local rag they have a court update bit where they list hearings and judgements.

IMO if your DH employer finds out they will most certainly dismiss, I would imagine that their will be something in the staff handbook / policies about disclosure. I would suggest that your dh speaks to his employer tells them the cirs etc, they may well change his duties slightly so that he does not handle cash etc until they are satisfied that it was a one off. Also if he has community service he will probably need time off at short notice so this will need to be explained anyway.

I wish you well

He has to tell them or he will get fired when they find out. Good luck.

It's better to be honest and tell his employee now IMO

Hope everything goes as well as possible today Ezra. It must be awful for you x

Just to echo what has been said above, if your DH's employer finds out without your DH telling them it will probably be grounds for instant dismissal, both due to the conviction (assuming he gets one) and the dishonesty of hiding the charge against him. It really is for your DH to tell them first - if he does, they might be prepared to keep him on in the circumstances. Essentially, he has nothing to lose by telling them, but everything to lose by not doing so.

Good luck to your DH today OP

I'm afraid your local court will have a journalist in it, all local papers do that. Please try to get him to tell his line manager what's going on in advance.

He really should tell his boss.

I know it feels counterintuative when you're so desperate for him to keep his job, but I suspect that there will havw been something on the application re disclosing charges that are pending. He'll have no chance if he tries to cover up a conviction as well, especially as the conviction is also to do with dishonesty.

Organsatuions each have their own criteria about what constitutes an unacceptable crb report and managers tend to have some leeway to take into account the particular circs. He won't necessarily be dismissed.

God luck with today you must be going through so much right nOw. But honestly you WILL get through it