URGENT ADVICE NEEDED ON OFFICIAL POLICE CAUTION!

[dimebar2003]

Hi, i recently went to the train station toilet and it was locked so i found the most discreet to urinate.
I was at the platform with my train due 10mins later and the transport police came over and took my information. The officer said as i'd never ran into the police before that he wouldn't caution me but would take my details in case anything ever happened again. I just accepted as my last train was due soon and i just wanted to get it over with as i was with my girlfriend.
2weeks later (today) i've received a letter asking me to attend the railway station for an official caution. I had a witness who was there when they said i wouldn't be getting a caution.
I'm applying to be an officer in the RAF soon and am scared my application will rejected. Please help on advice.
What will happen if i refuse the police caution?

[factor-fiction]

I hope you get an answer. I expect there are quite a few of us who have been in that position but weren't seen/reported so I sympathise

[hc4361]

If you refuse to accept the caution the railway police will have to decide if the matter is worth pursuing through the courts.
I strongly recommend you refuse the caution IF you were neither drunk nor abusive at the time of the offence.

[furrypusscat]

Are cautions recorded on file. If not then maybe better to accept one than risk going to court.

[hc4361]

Yes, they are recorded.

[Jemisa]

Police are guilty of this offence too. I witnessed two policemen urinating against our garage doors as I was about to draw the curtains at around midnight a couple of months back.
No good reporting them, their word against mine

jem

[danchip]

you can now be put on the sex offenders register for urinating in public!

[hc4361]

Link, please, danchip.

[Maydup]

...and even if you can danchip, it won't happen here - scaremongering.

I'd go to the railway station, be as polite and as controlled as you can, apologise for making the wrong decision on the day and simply ask them to honour their agreement not to caun s it will affect your job prospects.

[grffindoor2011]

The serious cases of urinating in public, showing your privates where other people are around you and can see, is an offence under the Sexual Offences Act 2003. However, I would see it as a public order offence.

Never accept a caution (if you are innocent), no matter how much of a hurry you are in. Cautions may seem the quick way, but could affect future employment/insurance etc. They aren't criminal convictions but do go on your police record.

Why did you not ask a member of the rail staff to unlock the toilet?

I woudn't see a caution affecting joining the RAF. I would be honest in any application you complete, giving full details. If you don't you could be rejected when they find out.

[Twenty20]

Don't all trains have toilets these days? You say your train was due in only 10 minutes, couldn't you wait? Or couldn't you have asked at the station?

If you were caught urinating in a public place, which you admit, then I don't see what defence you have. Accepting a caution is admitting the guilt, isn't that what you've already done?

Or, do people now think it is acceptable to urinate in public?

[hc4361]

Twenty20.

He was waiting for the last train home - the station may have been unmanned. He could have been relying on the toilets being open; there may be no other public toilets in the vicinity.

It is not acceptable to urinate in public, nor it is acceptable for a passenger who has pee'd himself because he needed the loo to get on a train.

Occasionally, needs must.

[Maydup]

Another important point here is the the fact that the officer told dimebar2003 that he wouldn't caution him, yet a letter has arrived to the opposite.

He's not denying what he did nor denying tahtin hindsight, it might not have been the best option, but the question is what to do now to best protect his RAF application.

[dimebar2003]

Cheers guys, it turned out they made a mistake with the letter and nothing further is going to happen! Thanks for your replies!

[hc4361]

Good :)