Just to be clear, the UK is part of the Visa Waiver program that the US run, like much of Western Europe. As a UK citizen you don't have to apply for a visa, you have to apply for a travel authorization to gain entry to the US (ESTA).
Officially, the US can't access foreign databases to look for criminal records when you apply for a ESTA. As such, you can flat out lie on your application and just answer the random questions they ask you at the airport and you're in.
More importantly, your "crime" is a misdemeanor by US standards and they show leniency if it happened "long ago":
http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/86942.pdf
Quote:
(1) Fraud;
(2) Larceny; and
(3) Intent to harm persons or things.
They don't like drug offences very much either, but also here you can get admitted if it happened "long ago". Not sure what definition is used on "long ago", but there is obviously some case-by-case thing going on here.