ok new question

when I was 20 years old I got arrested and to make a long story short i was made to serve 6 months probation with conselling(spelling ugh)... and as I go over my visa application and see them asking about arrest record  i get a little concerned that this will keep me from receiving my visa  especially quickly by going directly to nyc consulate... now i know when i was arrested and what the initial charges were and where i was arraigned and that i was remanded to a circuit court after charges were reduced  but i dont know exactly when my last court date was and exactly what date my probation ended but i know around when they were.. i've tryed to get all my records incase i need em but part of them have been destroyed after all this was 22 years ago and been told i would have to go in person to clerks office if i wanted to research rest of it and they could also have been destroyed as well... so my question/s is/are...
am i supposed to put specifics on my application or can i just tell them what I remember???  and is my having a record gonna slow the process or am i screwed???  I'm led to understand if what i did constituted a sentence of under 1 year imprisonment i'm ok for the visa and james says over here the most i woulda had to do was pay a fine and do community service ... so quit worrying...
any thoughts or advice? any U.K. solicitors or barristers or spouses of any in the forum???    Jo

I'm not a solicitor, but a legal secretary, but really, not answering from a legal perspective, but I don't know that you would need to put a conviction so old on your visa application.  I just was recently looking over the naturalisation forms I need to fill out and they ask if you've had any convictions (including road violations) in the last 5 years.  I would double check the application form and look at the wording carefully.  If it doesn't give a timescale then I would go ahead and list it and I would simply put in the information you do have and remember.  If they feel the need to question it, they will contact you but I'm guessing that as it is so old, that they won't really care about it so much, especially given the sentence was merely 6 months probation.