salad_man. If think you maybe a bit wrong with the caution thing.
Or maybe its a difference between Scots law and English.
And this is only what I believe and have been advised to do if nicked by a scottish bobby. And this was by a Scottish policeman.
If you accept a caution you accepting you are guilty of the charge. The police then issue you the caution. This is then recorded by the scottish criminal records office. And for ever more it comes up if the police do a check on you. With the standard rules about it lapsing.
If you refuse to accept the caution the police then have to forward it to the proc fiscal. Then they make the call if to take it to court or not.
9 times out of 10 if the police know they have enough evidence to secure a prosecution the caution will not be on offer. So if you do get one offered it usually because they know they are on shakey ground and the PF won't go ahead or because of social and economic reasons the whole proccess is going to cost more in police time and court costs than would be recovered. In scotland the crown always pays the costs for bring a prosecution.
The caution system is there so they can quickly record your wrong doings without using up court time and money. Then when you have taken the piss to much they get you for the whole lot in one go. They might only charge you with one offense but the sheriff will take into account you have been naughty before when sentencing you.
So if you have been cautioned in scotland it will come up on your record. Because you have pleaded guilty to the police and they have recorded it and released you with no punishment.
https://www.disclosurescotland.co.uk...ERTIFICATE.pdf
This is the sample report You can see there is a section for reprimands warnings and cautions.
I don't think the central computer system in England records the cautions so any cautions are only available locally where you got Knicked. So if you have been cautioned in England it won't show up yet.