Independent on alan turing law not working v well 2016 here
Importuning part:
"Richard*, one of my clients who has a caution for soliciting, is extremely disappointed that he is unable to apply to have his caution disregarded under the scheme. He feels strongly that he is owed an apology for the discriminatory way he was treated by the police, and the effect that the caution has had on his life. In 1995 he was approached by a man in Soho at the end of a night out. Before he had even spoken to the man, he was arrested by a plain clothes police officer, taken to a police station and told that he had been arrested for “soliciting or importuning for an immoral purpose” under section 32 of the Sexual Offences Act 1956.
Richard was told by the police that he could accept a caution for the offence in order to avoid any potential embarrassment. He was so upset and humiliated by the situation that he signed the caution in order to be able to leave the police station.
It wasn’t until 2008 that he first became aware that the repercussions of his arrest had the potential to last a lifetime. By this time Richard had spent nine years working in education, specifically teaching children with special educational needs. A CRB check requested by his then employer disclosed for the first time that he had a caution for a sex offence. Reliving the humiliation of his arrest, he explained what had happened to his employer, who was understanding, and he hoped that he would not have to deal with it again.
In 2015 he left his job, looking for a new challenge. He began applying for positions in schools, but his caution was disclosed to every prospective employer. He spent a year being rejected from job after job, and said, “My career fell apart. As I went from interview to interview it became more and more hopeless, and I thought I would never find a job again.”
Richard’s situation was compounded by the fact that as well as having a caution for an offence that is not included in the disregard scheme, his offence is considered to be a sex offence. Cautions for most offences are now filtered from a CRB check after six years, but serious offences and sex offences will never be filtered.
Eventually, Richard was able to persuade the police that his caution had been given to him unlawfully, and they agreed to delete it on an exceptional basis, outside of the disregard scheme. Richard now has a clean CRB record, and a new job. But, he says, “I will always be asked about that year’s gap on my CV. The caution has been deleted but that will never go away.”