Healthcare Applicant Deletes ABH Arrest and Local Police Records
The Situation:
What Our Client Was Facing
Our client was a young man building a career in medicine. Years earlier, he had been arrested over an allegation of assault occasioning actual bodily harm after an incident at a nightclub. He had acted in self-defence, and CCTV footage proved it. Even so, he spent six months under investigation before the matter was closed with no further action.
That should have been the end of it. Instead, the arrest left a full set of records behind: an arrest record on the Police National Computer, together with the crime report, custody record and investigation file held on the force’s local systems. As our guide on what local police records are explains, these records are retained under police retention frameworks regardless of the outcome of the case.
The consequences arrived with his Enhanced DBS check. The allegation was disclosed on his certificate as relevant police information. For someone entering medicine, with a career of repeated Enhanced DBS checks ahead of him, the problem was not just the one disclosure. It was that the records behind it would remain on police systems indefinitely, available to be disclosed again on every future check.
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Our Approach:
How We Challenged the Caution
We ran the case on two tracks: challenging the disclosure on the certificate, and applying to delete the records that made the disclosure possible. As our guide on how local police records feed Enhanced DBS disclosure explains, a certificate challenge on its own only deals with the immediate problem. Deletion deals with the source.
- We challenged the disclosure: The CCTV evidence showed self-defence. The investigation had ended with no further action for that reason. Once this was properly explained, the disclosure could not stand up to the tests of reliability and proportionality.
- We applied to delete the local records: The application, made under Part 3 of the Data Protection Act 2018, set out why continued retention of records from a disproven allegation served no continuing law enforcement purpose.
- We applied to delete the PNC arrest record: Alongside the local records, we applied through the Record Deletion Process for removal of the arrest record itself, so that no trace of the allegation remained on national systems either.
- We put innocence at the centre of both applications: This was not a finely balanced case. The CCTV proved he had done nothing wrong, and the applications were built to make that impossible to overlook.
The police did not concede immediately. The disclosure was maintained at first review, and we pressed the challenge to appeal.
The Outcome:
How We Helped
The disclosure was removed on appeal, before the dispute needed to reach the Independent Monitor. The deletion applications also succeeded: the local records were deleted from the force’s systems, and the PNC arrest record was deleted with them, which also meant the destruction of his fingerprints and DNA. The process took several months from start to finish.
The result is comprehensive. There is no disclosure on his certificate, no arrest record on the PNC, no local file waiting to resurface, and no biometric data on police systems.
Every Enhanced DBS check in his medical career will now draw on systems that hold nothing against him, which is exactly the position an innocent man should be in.
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Why This Case Mattered — and What Others Can Learn
This case shows the difference between winning a disclosure challenge and solving the underlying problem. A successful challenge stops one disclosure. The records behind it remain, and for someone facing decades of Enhanced DBS checks, each new check is a fresh opportunity for the same allegation to surface. Deletion removes the risk at source.
It also shows that records do not delete themselves when a case collapses. Six months of investigation ended in no further action because CCTV proved self-defence, yet the full file remained on police systems by default. Deletion had to be applied for, argued and won.
If an arrest or allegation is affecting your DBS checks, Legisia’s Local Police Record Deletion service can assess whether there are grounds to remove the records for good.
Do police records get deleted automatically if a case ends in no further action?
No. Both PNC arrest records and local police records are retained by default, regardless of the outcome. Deletion has to be applied for, and the application has to persuade the police that continued retention is no longer justified.
Should I challenge the DBS disclosure or apply to delete the records?
Often both. A disclosure challenge deals with the certificate in front of you. Deletion deals with the records that would otherwise feed every future check. For careers involving repeated Enhanced DBS checks, the combination is usually the most durable solution.
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