How long does a criminal record last in Victoria?
For life, in the sense that matters least and most at the same time. A criminal record in Victoria is permanent, because Victoria Police retains a person’s criminal history indefinitely and does not delete it.
But that is only half the story, because what most people really want to know is not whether the record exists somewhere, but whether it will show up when it counts. On that question, the answer is much more hopeful, since most convictions eventually stop appearing on standard checks. Understanding this split, between the record lasting forever and a conviction becoming invisible on checks, is the key to the whole topic.
It helps to know why the record is kept at all. Police and courts rely on complete history for legitimate reasons, from making bail and sentencing decisions to keeping vulnerable people safe, so the law deliberately preserves the underlying record even as it limits who gets to see it.
That design is actually good news for most people, because it means the system can protect your privacy in everyday life without pretending, in the small number of situations where full history genuinely matters, that a person has none. The record lasting forever and your old mistake fading from view are two sides of the same scheme.
The record is permanent, but its visibility changes
This distinction is the single most misunderstood thing about criminal records. The record itself does not have an expiry date, so it is not wiped after five, ten, or twenty years. What changes is disclosure, meaning whether a conviction is revealed on a police check or has to be told to an employer.
Over time, most convictions become spent and disappear from routine view, even though the underlying record is still held by police. So a person can accurately say both “my record is permanent” and “my old conviction no longer shows up,” because both are true at once.
Getting this straight changes how you plan. If you believe your record vanishes on a certain date, you may either worry needlessly about an old matter that no longer shows, or be blindsided when a spent conviction surfaces in one of the situations where the law still allows it. The accurate mental model is a permanent file with a curtain drawn across most of it after enough time, rather than an empty drawer.
When do convictions stop showing on a police check?
Once they become spent, which for most convictions happens automatically after a set period. Under the Spent Convictions Act 2021 (Vic), a conviction generally becomes spent after a conviction period of 10 years for an adult, or 5 years for a person who was under 21 at the time, provided there is no reoffending. Some convictions are spent immediately, including a finding of guilt where no conviction was recorded, infringement convictions, and some minor Children’s Court matters. The table below sets out when different convictions stop showing on a standard check.
| Conviction type | When it stops showing | On standard checks |
| No conviction recorded, infringement | Immediately | Not disclosed |
| Ordinary adult conviction | After 10 years | Not disclosed once spent |
| Conviction when under 21 | After 5 years | Not disclosed once spent |
| Serious conviction | Only by court order | May always show |
It is worth being clear about what a standard National Police Check actually shows in the meantime. Until a conviction is spent, it appears as a disclosable court outcome, which an employer can see and take into account, and once it is spent it drops from that view.
The catch is reoffending, because the conviction period only runs if you stay out of trouble, so a fresh offence can push the spent date back and keep an older conviction visible longer than you expected. Our guide on removing or sealing a criminal record in Victoria explains how the spent conviction scheme works in more detail.
Does a spent conviction mean your record is erased?
No, and this is the myth worth breaking. A spent conviction is not deleted, expunged, or wiped from existence. Victoria Police is explicit that the spent convictions scheme is not an expungement scheme, and that spent convictions remain available for law enforcement, the administration of justice, and other purposes required by law.
In plain terms, “spent” means hidden from most checks, not gone. This matters because people sometimes assume an old conviction has vanished entirely and are then surprised when it surfaces in a context where the law still allows it to be seen, a risk our guide on whether a caution or finding shows on a police check also highlights. The practical upshot is simple but important.
For ordinary life, a job application, a rental, or a volunteer role that does not involve children, a spent conviction generally does not have to be disclosed and will not appear, so you can move on. But you should never tell yourself the conviction has ceased to exist, because that assumption is exactly what leads people to answer a screening question wrongly and turn an old matter into a fresh problem. Knowing it is hidden, not gone, keeps you on the right side of disclosure.
Which convictions never stop showing?
Serious convictions can keep showing indefinitely, which is a hard but important limit. Convictions for serious offences, broadly certain sexual offences, serious violence offences, and matters attracting a sentence of imprisonment of more than 30 months, do not become spent automatically.
Some cannot be spent at all, particularly where an adult received a term of imprisonment for a sexual or serious violence offence, meaning those convictions may appear on checks for the rest of a person’s life. For anyone in this position, knowing the reality early is far better than assuming time alone will solve it, and it makes getting proper advice about the options genuinely worthwhile.
There is a logic to where the line is drawn. The offences that never fade from view are those the community treats as most serious and most relevant to future risk, which is why the scheme keeps them visible rather than letting time alone bury them. That does not mean nothing can ever be done, because in some cases a court can be asked to make a serious conviction spent, but it does mean the automatic drop-off that applies to ordinary convictions simply is not available.
When can a spent conviction still be disclosed?
More often than people expect, because the protection is not absolute. Even after a conviction is spent and hidden from ordinary employment checks, it can still be disclosed for a defined set of roles and purposes. These include working with children checks and child-related screening, teaching registration, disability and health worker roles, police and prison employment, firearms licensing, and immigration matters, as well as for law enforcement and court proceedings.
This is why a person with a spent conviction can still find it raised when applying for a firearms licence or a role working with vulnerable people. The spent conviction scheme protects everyday employment, not every situation, so it pays to know where the exceptions bite. The common thread across these exceptions is risk to others or the integrity of a trusted role.
A check for someone who will work with children, handle firearms, teach, or care for vulnerable patients is allowed to see more, because the stakes are higher, and immigration and law enforcement have their own reasons to access full history.
So a person can hold a clean-looking standard check for everyday purposes and still have a spent conviction considered the moment they step into one of these regulated areas, which is not a loophole but part of how the scheme was deliberately built.
What is the difference between spent and expunged?
Spent hides a conviction, while expungement actually erases it, and the two are often confused. Expungement is rare and narrow in Victoria, applying mainly to historical convictions for conduct that is no longer criminal, such as historical homosexual offences, which can be permanently removed from the record.
For almost everyone else, the relevant mechanism is the spent conviction scheme, which restricts disclosure rather than deleting anything. Because there is no general “clear your record” process that wipes an ordinary conviction, understanding which mechanism applies to you is important, and it is one reason a record can still affect things like travel overseas even years later.
Expungement is designed as a form of justice for people convicted under laws society has since rejected, which is why it is narrow and specific rather than a general escape hatch, so for an ordinary conviction the realistic goal is a spent status rather than erasure.
What should you do about your criminal record in Victoria?
Find out exactly what shows, rather than assuming. The most practical first step is to get a National Police Check so you can see what actually appears on a standard check today, then work out which of your convictions are spent, which are not, and where you might still have to disclose.
If you have a serious conviction, or a complicated history, understanding your real position is worth far more than guessing or hoping. If you want to know how long your criminal record will affect you in Victoria, or whether an old conviction is spent, confirm what still shows, so you understand what is protected and what, if anything, you can do about it, and so an old matter never catches you off guard in employment or a routine police check.
