Traveling to Uk criminal conviction

[umhi]

hey guys just wondering if you can travel to the uk and any EU countries if you have a criminal conviction am planning to go on a holiday next year for a month and not finding much info on this topic.i got in trouble for abstruction????? will i need a tourist visa????

[d-neg]

For anyone else asking this question (because it appears everywhere when you google it!) here is my experience.
The UK DO now share conviction records (but only CONVICTIONS, not arrests) with the US. It was part of the agreement on info sharing in late 2007. So if you have been convicted they will know... I arrived in the US for the 5th time in 2008 and they had my records for the first time. The conviction is a relatively minor 12 yr old breach charge and therefore after some uncomfortable moments where I had to answer questions about this they let me in. A crime of moral turpitude is apparently one which involves violence, fraud etc or where you have convictions where the sentence(s) resulted in a year or more in custody. If so, don't even think about lying. Your feet won't hit immigration's floor on the way out (in handcuffs, I saw this being done!) On the up side, after this experience I returned, applied for the proper visa (granted in two days) and am still in the US, so a minor conviction is not a bar to entry. Another friend wasgranted a ten year waiver of ineligbility so he can travel on VWP for ten years before re-applying. Hope this helps.