In each of the five cases the offences were a long time ago and the people had not re-offended. Some had suffered subsequently because the offences showed up in employers' background checks and one woman who was just 13 when she committed her offence was told at the time that the record of it would be deleted when she turned 18.
The ICO said that it hoped the ruling would create a precedent.
"We believe that this a landmark ruling which will have wider implications for police forces around the country and will ensure that irrelevant details of old criminal convictions are deleted," said assistant commissioner Mick Gorrill. "Those concerned were caused harm and distress by the retention of this data."
The police forces which have been ordered to delete the information from the National Police Computer system are Humberside, Northumbria, Staffordshire, Greater Manchester and West Midlands.
Ian Readhead, ACPO's spokesman on data protection issues, said that he too believed the ruling could have an impact on all forces' future behaviour.
"[The ruling] could have far-reaching implications for the police service as a whole," he said. "The Bichard Inquiry which followed the tragedy of the Soham murders recommended that forces should reconsider the way in which records are managed. It is now important that clear national guidelines are put in place so that forces take a consistent approach to the retention of criminal records. Our aim is to ensure that the police service can be in the best possible position to protect the public."
The Tribunal's ruling came after the police forces had appealed the ICO's original decision. A further appeal can be made. "We will now take some time to discuss these implications with the service and decide on the most appropriate course of action," said Redhead.
The Tribunal made a ruling in a similar set of cases in 2005 when dealing with incidents dating back almost 40 years. In three instances combined in one ruling it said that the police should keep the records on the national computer system as long as only police staff could access them.
That meant ensuring that the records did not appear on the register that was routinely searched by potential employers. The Tribunal emphasised in that ruling, though, that it was not meant to be a precedent and that every case had to be judged on its own facts.
In the current case ACPO argued that some records should be kept, but with access given only to the police. The ICO accepted that such an arrangement was sometimes suitable but not in this case.
The Home Office submitted written evidence claiming that the keeping of material on the database but only accessible to police was wrong in law in certain circumstances because other parties should be able to access the information.
The Information Tribunal said that police arguments that they had to keep data on the Police National Computer because it was needed by other bodies for the checking of criminal records were not right. It said that they were obliged to make available any data they had, but not obliged to keep any data for those purposes.
"If the government requires a different regime to operate then it will need to legislate accordingly with all the necessary safeguards that would be considered appropriate," it said.
This article was contributed to ITproportal.com by http://www.OUT-LAW.com.
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