Ex-City trader Tom Hayes fights visa ban after Libor conviction overturned

The UK Supreme Court has overturned Tom Hayes's decade-old Libor conviction, clearing his name after years of legal and personal upheaval stemming from the financial crisis. Yet Hayes remains listed on Britain’s police national computer as a convicted criminal, a status that blocks his ability to obtain a visa for Australia and has forced him to navigate a slow bureaucratic process to start a new life with his family.

Hayes was the first person convicted by a jury for manipulating Libor, the benchmark rate once used to set mortgages and other loans. He was jailed in 2015 for 14 years, a sentence later reduced to 11 on appeal. He served about five-and-a-half years before being released on licence in 2021. Two months ago, the Supreme Court dramatically quashed the sentence and cleared his name, but the conviction remains in the national police record.

To obtain a visa, Hayes says he must obtain a court order discharging the conviction so it can be removed from the police national computer. He notes that U.S. authorities have already erased all details of his conviction from their records; the FBI moved quickly, while the United Kingdom has not.

An acquittal certificate has now been issued, and a spokesperson for the ACRO criminal records office said they could not discuss individual cases. Hayes, a lifelong cricket fan, hopes the paperwork can be sorted in time for the first Test Match between England and Australia in Perth in November, a trip that would mark the first holiday abroad he has taken since his conviction was quashed. He said the ordeal has cost him his marriage and that he has not received compensation for the miscarriage of justice.

"Hayes described the current situation as 'Kafkaesque' and 'a broken justice system at its worst.' He said, 'It's stupidly simple to sort it out. It just takes one court order to be signed off.' He plans to rebuild his life with a new partner and their three-month-old daughter, Themis, who is named after the Greek goddess of justice."

Meanwhile, observers say that the case illustrates how inconsistent record-clearing can be, even after a Supreme Court ruling. Hayes hopes the visa issue will be resolved soon so he can travel and reconcile with his family, while his supporters await targeted reforms to ensure post-conviction records do not continue to hinder innocent people.