Check if you need to tell someone about your criminal record
Military convictions
A court might give you a military conviction if they find you guilty of a crime while you served in the British armed forces.
The conviction might be:
- a dismissal
- a service detention
- an overseas community order
- a service community order
Whether a military conviction is ‘spent’ affects what information you need to give a potential employer, university or college.
When military convictions become spent
How long it takes for a conviction to become spent depends on how old you were when you were convicted. If you were:
- 18 or over it takes 12 months
- under 18 it takes 6 months
The length of time is calculated from:
- the date of your conviction for dismissals
- the day on which the sentence is complete for service detentions
- the end date for overseas and community service orders - if the order has no end date, it becomes spent after 2 years
If you were given both a dismissal and a service detention then the longer of the two spent dates applies.