We had been running a successful IT consulting and leasing business, but Sally really was the ‘magic ingredient’. When I lost her, I lost my spark and the business struggled.
Faced with mounting debts and pressure and all whilst I was still grieving, I feared losing our home, yet I still had two daughters to think about.
In desperation and fear, I issued several fraudulent invoices which I knew the factoring firm would pay. I planned to pay back the debt over time and all would be well.
In 2009, an audit unearthed my fraud, causing my world to crash down again, as I was arrested and charged with fraud and false accounting.
Fortunately, as sole carer for my two daughters, and with some sympathy from the judge, I narrowly escaped a prison sentence.
News of my crime and arrest made the local papers and even national websites.
The embarrassment and shame meant that we lost friends and many family members refused to talk to us. Eventually, we had to move house and school to avoid poor treatment and harassment.
In 2015 my conviction became legally spent.
This meant that I no longer had to disclose it to apply for jobs, housing, or insurance.
I thought this meant a fresh start but at school, my daughter’s classmates ‘googled’ my name and found the articles causing much distress.
I struggled to gain customers for my new business, even though I was pricing my service competitively.
Was my punishment never going to end?
I investigated the rights I had over the information presented about me online and discovered The Right to Erasure, also known as the Right to be Forgotten.
I learned about the General Data Protection Regulations (Article 17), which empowers people to ask that search engines block results which are excessive, inaccurate, out of date, or no longer relevant.
But where would I start?
Not being legally minded I searched for help, I wanted this to work and didn’t want to mess up by trying a DIY approach. The costs to instruct a solicitor were too high for me at £1,200-£1,800, but I found an alternative team of lawyers at Internet Erasure Ltd who charged less than half of those quotes!
Internet Erasure was knowledgeable and supportive. They covered Google, Bing, and Yahoo instead of just Google. They carried out comprehensive research before making the Right to be Forgotten submissions, so no links were missed.
A few weeks later I was thrilled to get the call that Google was blocking everything, shortly followed by a more successful right to erasure removals from Bing and Yahoo.
I finally have a fresh start now.
For 13 years I lived through the unjustifiable disclosure of my conviction.
The Information Commissioner classes criminal convictions as highly sensitive data and spent convictions should almost never be disclosed. Why should Google have more authority than the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act?
Internet Erasure described it as ‘Enforced Disclosure’ and they gave me the support and practical help I desperately needed to stop it.
Neighbours, dates, employers, and clients can no longer discover my private information with just a few clicks, and I don’t have to relive those poor decisions of the past.
I feel free.
I recommend The Right to be Forgotten to you.
I also suggest you visit www.interneterasure.co.uk/apply.html if you want the professionals to do the work for you.
Best wishes for the future,
David Bartrum
(name changed to protect my newfound privacy)