Personal History (Section 7) - Indefinite leave to remain.

Hello everyone,

I am going to make an application for permanent residence next week in person. I am not sure about one question in Section 7 of the set(o) form. It would be great if anyone can help.

It says:
7.1 Do you or any dependants who are applying with you have any criminal convictions in the UK or any other country (including traffic offences) or any civil judgments made against you?

Last year I was fined for not exhibiting my car road tax. Actually, I forgot to renew it and was caught by police in my city. However, I didn't get any points/endorsements on my license. I only got fixed penalty notice and had to pay around 60 pounds fine.

Now its not a serious offense but can still be categorised as a traffic offense.

So my question is do I still need to mention this incident on my application??

Thanks in advance.

There's an ambiguity there because while it's not a criminal conviction, it clearly is a traffic offence.
If in doubt, put it in. If it is relevant and you don't declare it, you could be in trouble. If it's not relevant they'll just disregard it anyway.
I saw something recently to the effect that while a fixed penalty notice is normally disregarded, serial offenders who accumulate more than 6 points on their licence may be caught under the "not of good character" clause.

[quote="Mr Rusty"]There's an ambiguity there because while it's not a criminal conviction, it clearly is a traffic offence.
If in doubt, put it in. If it is relevant and you don't declare it, you could be in trouble. If it's not relevant they'll just disregard it anyway.
I saw something recently to the effect that while a fixed penalty notice is normally disregarded, serial offenders who accumulate more than 6 points on their licence may be caught under the "not of good character" clause.[/quote]

Thanks Mr Rusty for your reply. I think you are right I should declare everything but I found something on good character on UK border Agency website which answers my question. This is under the British citizenship section:

http://www.bia.homeoffice.gov.uk/britis ... character/

"Your criminal record

We will carry out criminal record checks on all applications from people aged 10 and over.

You must also provide details of all civil proceedings which have resulted in a court order being made against you.

You must give details of all unspent criminal convictions. This includes road traffic offences but not fixed penalty notices (such as speeding or parking tickets) unless they were given in court. You must include all drink-driving offences. An explanation of unspent convictions is given below.

If you have an unspent conviction, your application for citizenship is unlikely to be successful. You should wait until the end of your rehabilitation period before applying."