The lockdown laws we are subject to are many, varied and easily broken, with substantial penalties for contraventions. Anyone accused of breaking any of them will probably be offered the option of paying an “admission of guilt” fine. If that happens to you, just be very careful before opting to go that route – tempting as it is to pay up and put the whole thing behind you, it could land you with a criminal record.

Having a criminal record comes with serious and lifelong negative consequences. Even an old and long-forgotten minor offence can hang around in the background until it suddenly pops up at the worst possible times – such as when you apply for a travel visa or a new job.

The general rule is that you will acquire a criminal record if you are arrested, if the police open a docket and take fingerprints, and if you are thereafter convicted of a crime.

The problem with admission of guilt fines is that they may well leave you with a “deemed” conviction and sentence which will end up in the SAPS Criminal Record Centre (CRC) database. Although there was talk in the past of the CRC capturing convictions with just your name and I.D. number the main risk seems to still be in having your fingerprints taken. If that happens, the “crime” is sure to be recorded against your name.

And once you have a criminal record, it’s not easy to get rid of it.

1. Firstly, you can apply for “expungement” of the record to remove it from the CRC database, but that option is only available to you after 10 years and for certain “minor offences”. It will also take a long time to process – “20 – 28 weeks” per SAPS.
2. Secondly, you could ask a court to set aside your conviction and sentence – costly, not quick and not guaranteed to succeed.
3. Thirdly, you could hope that planned amendments to our criminal procedure laws will retrospectively come to your aid – speculative and not yet in the pipeline.

The bottom line – if you are offered the option of paying an admission of guilt fine, ask for advice before you accept!

This article is an edited version of an article published recently by LawDotNews, and we credit the original authors.