Warning on diversion risks

Police should not pass on details of people on their diversion scheme to other agencies, says a group of Auckland lawyers.

The public issues committee of the Auckland District Law Society said the diversion scheme, which has operated since 1987, could come back to sting some people.

In a discussion paper, the committee proposed tighter restrictions on the police disclosure of details of a person's diversion history, including a ban on the police passing information to other agencies.

People appearing in court on relatively minor criminal charges can be granted police diversion provided they admit guilt and agree to several other actions, usually an apology and reparation to the victim or a donation to charity.

The scheme is usually applied to first-time offenders and allows them to avoid a conviction.

But the committee said people often mistakenly believed that diversion gave them a clean slate.

The admission of guilt could later have serious consequences and if details of the diversion were known to other organisations, it could affect a person's insurance if it involved dishonesty offences, work prospects and right of entry into other countries.

People who might have been discharged without conviction on criminal offences might not be aware of the potential consequences of admitting guilt under the scheme.

The committee said the inherent dangers and unfairness of the scheme had been known since its inception and the problems were raised again in a Justice Department report 10 years ago.

In the past, police had given diversion details to the Immigration Service. Those details could affect an intending immigrant's residence application or the extension of a work permit. They could also affect a future visitor's visa and a student or work visa application.

The committee said the admission of guilt could also affect future employment.

The diversion scheme involving minor offences did not get the same protection proposed under the "clean slate" bill before Parliament which allowed details of some "quite serious offences" to be wiped from a person's record.

The committee called for a list of offences to which diversion could apply, and a change to the law making it illegal to discriminate against anyone who had been granted diversion and had not re-offended.

- NZPA