Title VIII: Criminal records

An entry shall be made in the criminal record of sentences or exemptions from sentences handed down after deferral of sentence, pardons, commutations or reductions of sentences, decisions suspending or ordering the enforcement of a first conviction, decisions taken pursuant to the second paragraph of article 728-4 or the first paragraph of article 728-7, conditional release and revocation decisions, judicial supervision and re-incarceration decisions taken pursuant to article 723-35, safety supervision decisions, safety retention decisions, sentence suspension decisions, pardons, decisions revoking or suspending deportation orders, as well as the date on which the sentence expires, the date on which the fine is paid and the date on which the enforcement order for the unchallengeable increased fixed fine is issued.

A mention shall be made, on the criminal record sheets relating to decisions on secure detention or secure surveillance, of decisions to renew these measures.

Records relating to convictions erased by an amnesty or reformed in accordance with a decision to rectify the criminal record shall be removed from the criminal record. The same applies, except in the case of convictions handed down for acts for which there is no statute of limitations or by a foreign court, to records relating to convictions handed down more than forty years ago and which have not been followed by a new conviction to a criminal or correctional sentence.

The following shall also be removed from the criminal record:

1° Judgments pronouncing personal bankruptcy or the prohibition provided for by Article L. 653-8 of the French Commercial Code when these measures are erased by a judgment of closure for extinction of liabilities, by rehabilitation or on expiry of the five-year period from the day on which these sentences became final.

However, if the period of personal bankruptcy or disqualification is longer than five years, the conviction relating to these measures remains mentioned on the criminal record cards for the same period;

2° Disciplinary decisions erased by rehabilitation ;

3° (Deleted)

4° Dispensations from penalties, on expiry of a period of three years from the day on which the conviction became final;

5° Convictions for misdemeanours, on expiry of a period of three years from the day on which these convictions became final; this period is extended to four years in the case of a misdemeanour for which the repeat offence constitutes an offence ;

6° Entries relating to the penal composition, on expiry of a period of three years from the day on which the execution of the measure was noted, if the person has not, during this period, either been sentenced to a criminal or correctional penalty, or executed a new penal composition ;

7° Records relating to educational measures, dispensations from educational measures and declarations of educational success pronounced against a minor at the end of a period of three years from the day on which the decision became final;

8° Convictions that have been the subject of a judicial pardon, where the court has expressly ordered the deletion of the conviction from the criminal record in accordance with the second paragraph of Article 798;

9° Records relating to judgments or rulings declaring a person not criminally responsible on account of mental disorder, where involuntary hospitalisation ordered pursuant to article 706-135 has ended or when the security measures provided for by Article 706-136 have ceased to have effect;

10° Convictions handed down by foreign courts, upon receipt of a notice of erasure from the convicting State or a decision to withdraw the mention ordered by a French court. However, if the conviction was handed down by a court in a Member State of the European Union, the withdrawal ordered by a French court does not prevent it from being retransmitted to the other Member States of the European Union;

11° The records relating to the fixed fines mentioned in 11° of Article 768, on expiry of a period of three years from their payment or on expiry of the period referred to in the second paragraph of article 495-19, if the person has not, during this period, either been convicted of a criminal or correctional offence, or been fined again.