Commonwealth Consolidated Acts Commonwealth Consolidated Acts (1)
Where:
(a) a person has been convicted of an indictable offence and a police
officer has reasonable grounds for suspecting that a person has possession or
control of a property‑tracking document or property‑tracking
documents in relation to the offence; or
(b) a police officer has reasonable grounds for suspecting that:
(i) a person has committed an indictable offence; and
(ii) a person has possession or control of a property‑tracking
document or property‑tracking documents in relation to the offence;
the
police officer may:
(c) lay before a Judge of the Supreme Court of:
(i) the State or Territory in which the person was convicted of the
offence or in which the offence is believed to have been committed; or
(ii) a State or Territory in which the document is, or some or all of
the documents are, believed to be located;
an information on oath setting out those grounds; and
(d) apply to the Judge for an order under subsection (4) against
the person suspected of having possession or control of the document or
documents.
(1A)
A police officer is not empowered to make an application under this
section after the commencement of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 .
(2)
Where a police officer applying for an order under this section in
respect of an offence includes in the information under subsection (1)
information on oath that the officer has reasonable grounds to believe that:
(a) if the offence is an ordinary indictable offence:
(i) the person who was convicted of the offence, or who is believed to
have committed the offence, derived a benefit, directly or indirectly, from
the commission of the offence; and
(ii) property specified in the information is subject to the effective
control of the person; or
(b) if the offence is a serious offence—property specified in the
information is subject to the effective control of the person;
the Judge may
treat any document relevant to identifying, locating or quantifying that
property as a property‑tracking document in relation to the offence for
the purposes of this section.
(3)
In determining whether to treat a document, under subsection (2),
as a property‑tracking document in relation to an offence, the Judge may
have regard to the matters referred to in subsection 9A(2).
(4)
Where an application is made under subsection (1) for an order
against a person, the Judge may, subject to subsections (5) and (6), make
an order that the person:
(a) produce to a police officer any documents of the kind referred to
in subsection (1) that are in the person’s possession or control;
or
(b) make available to a police officer, for inspection, any documents
of that kind that are in the person’s possession or control.
(5)
An order under paragraph (4)(a) shall not be made in respect of
the books of an ADI.
(6)
A Judge shall not make an order under this section unless:
(a) the informant or some other person has given the Judge, either
orally or by affidavit, such information (if any) as the Judge requires
concerning the grounds on which the order is sought; and
(b) the Judge is satisfied that there are reasonable grounds for making
the order.
(7)
An order that a person produce a document or documents to a police
officer shall specify the time when and the place where the document is or the
documents are to be produced.
(8)
An order that a person make a document or documents available to a
police officer for inspection shall specify the time or times when the
document is or the documents are to be made available.
(9)
Where a document is produced to a police officer pursuant to an order
under this section, the police officer may do any one or more of the
following:
(a) inspect the document;
(b) take extracts from the document;
(c) make copies of the document;
(d) retain the document if, and for so long as, retention of the
document is reasonably necessary for the purposes of this Act.
(10)
Where a document is made available to a police officer for inspection pursuant
to an order under this section, the police officer may do any one or more of
the following:
(a) inspect the document;
(b) take extracts from the document;
(c) make copies of the document.
(11)
Where a police officer retains a document pursuant to an order under this
section, the police officer shall, on request by the person to whom the order
was addressed:
(a) give the person a copy of the document certified by the police
officer in writing to be a true copy of the document; and
(b) unless the person has received a copy of the document under
paragraph (a)—permit the person to do any one or more of the
following:
(i) inspect the document;
(ii) take extracts from the document;
(iii) make copies of the document.
(12) A
person is not excused from producing or making available a document when
required to do so by an order under this section on the ground that:
(a) the production or making available of the document might tend to
incriminate the person or make the person liable to a penalty; or
(b) the production or making available of the document would be in
breach of an obligation (whether imposed by enactment or otherwise) of the
person not to disclose the existence or contents of the document.
(13)
Where a person produces or makes available a document pursuant to an order
under this section, the production or making available of the document, or any
information, document or thing obtained as a direct or indirect consequence of
the production or making available of the document, is not admissible against
the person in any criminal proceedings except a proceeding for an offence
against subsection 68(1).
(14) For
the purposes of subsection (13), proceedings on an application for a
restraining order, a forfeiture order or a pecuniary penalty order are not
criminal proceedings.
(15) In
this section:
"books of an ADI" means any accounting records used in the ordinary business
of an ADI, including ledgers, day-books, cash-books and account books.