Bad reference/no reference - will you never work again?

You cannot change the past, and you must not lie, but you can change the future. You must, at some point, tell the prospective employer that your previous employer will not give you a positive reference. Explain what happened, admit to guilt if you did something wrong, and say you have learned that lesson and will not repeat that behavior again. Find a prior employer who will give you a positive reference, and use them instead. Eventually, there will be an employer who will give you another chance on these terms. If. however, you do not preempt the bad reference by admitting that it is there and that you have some fault, you will never get away from it either.