I am going to pipe in here, and admit I have a criminal history that is not all that good. I have an ASIC. Fortunately for me, there is a statute limit of 10 years on criminal convictions here in Australia, and if you have not broken any laws in the last 10 years no one can hold it against you. Can a crim be reformed? Yup, I am a living example. I cant even tell a simple lie these days. I learned my lesson. I hold several security clearances now (not in aviation) and I would never set a foot wrong. Its taken me a lot of time to re-earn that trust, and I am not going to screw that up now. Never...
When you get your ASIC, you would have read (maybe not) all the tripe about them being able to revoke it if you are convicted of an offence. If this guy is clean, and will behave then he is fine. If he breaks the law again, his ASIC will be cancelled. I work closely with some a couple of government departments with regards to similar stuff, and I can assure you that they are well aware of what is going on.