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What are police cautions, warnings and penalty notices?

Police cautions and warnings are the same and can be issued to anyone over the age of ten for minor offences, whilst this does not count as a conviction it can show up on any criminal records check.

You can be issued with a verbal warning, in these circumstances, your details will be held on police records, but this will not appear on a criminal record check if you are unsure you can request a copy of the information held online via the gov.uk website.
To be issued with a caution you must admit to the offence if you don’t then you could be arrested and charged.

Cautions issued with conditions.

Some cautions can contain conditions, which must be followed through.
For example, if you have caused criminal damage, you may be asked to fix it or if the offence is drugs related you may be required to undertake a treatment program.

What is a disorder penalty notice?

The recipient must be 18 and over.
These are issued by the police for offences that have caused disorder, for example, being drunk and disorderly.
Fines range from £40 to £80 plus an offenders levy of £5, you have 28 days to pay the fine and you can do so online.
If you do not pay the fine within the 28 days it will be increased by 50%.
At the time of issue you will be asked to sign the penalty notice ticket, if you would rather go to trial you could face a much larger fine and the information being held on your record, if you pay the fine you will not receive a criminal conviction.

What are police cautions, warnings and penalty notices?
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