"I've explained my past to my company, I'm not afraid to speak about it now because I've been given that confidence, no matter what I'm gonna be successful. They come out of prison or after being convicted and think 'what's going to happen?'. "The worry for a lot of people is they are scared they don't get that chance. Sometimes they are just caught up in the wrong situation. "People look at people who have been involved with the police as bad people but not everyone who has got a criminal conviction is a bad person, not everyone has got evil in them. He insists such employment schemes are crucial to allow those with troubled pasts a chance to turn their lives around and become a valuable part of society.
Just that, you don't realise it can go a mile with somebody who has had difficult times." "It's not just what they've done for me but they check in on me too, at least once a week, they send me a text or email to say 'I hope you're doing ok'. He's made mistakes but has grasped the second chance he has been given and is determined never to have to deal with the police again. In many ways, the employment scheme saved Davante. When they do a CRB on me, is it going to show up?" "I want to work with kids too but it makes it a bit of a worry. Even though they're crying out for my profession, I'm scared it will have a long-term effect. "My big brother migrated to Australia and I potentially wanted to do that. While Davante is now in a much better place in his life, he still fears his past could come back to haunt him. Someone like myself who doesn't want to be in trouble with the police, it's not what I aim to do, it was quite scary." I look back and think look where I am now compared to where I was then. "I wish I never went there (the scene of the incident). "But the reason he never was because of the voluntary work I've done in the past, and working with kids. "The judge said he wanted to send me down," he recalls. He's made quick progress and has already been promoted to train others, and his bosses can't speak highly enough of him.ĭavante admits he knows things could easily have gone very differently. He's secured a job on the HS2 rail project driving lorries through employment company Avision, as part of the scheme funded by the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner. Things are now much brighter and Davante's life is now back on track in more ways than one. But that's when, through his probation officer, he was signed up to an offender employment scheme, which aims to give people with criminal convictions a second chance, get them into work and put their lives on a stable footing in a bid to stop the cycle of reoffending. In the eyes of the law he was a convicted criminal. He worried about where his life would go from there and whether his conviction would hang over him forever. READ MORE: 'Something needs to be done' - Sister of unsolved murder victim on mission to stop others dying on streets
He was fitted with an electronic tag, slapped with a five-year restraining order and lost his job. The 27-year-old from Erdington said he never intended to hit her but the incident was captured on CCTV and he was convicted of assault after being taken to court. A heated argument with his then-girlfriend ended with Davante reversing his car into her. "I'd be lying if I said I didn't think about not wanting to be here," he admits.
He had just been convicted of assaulting his girlfriend after hitting her with his car and feared his future prospects and dreams of moving to Australia had gone up in smoke.
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