New South Wales Consolidated Acts

COMMERCIAL VESSELS ACT 1979 - SECT 12

12 Motor to be used as provided by permit

(1) Subject to subsections (2) and (3), the owner and the master of a vessel which is used in prescribed waters and to which a motor is attached are each guilty of an offence against this Act unless:

(a) a permit relating to the motor is in force, and

(b) the motor is used in accordance with the authority conferred by the permit.

(2) Where the master of a vessel is proceeded against for the offence referred to in subsection (1), the master is not guilty of the offence if it is proved:

(a) that, at the time of the use alleged to constitute the offence, a plate that was, or purported to be, a permit plate was affixed to the motor,

(b) that the motor was being used in a manner that, if the particulars specified in that plate had been the only particulars specified in a permit relating to the motor would have been in accordance with the authority conferred by that permit, and

(c) that the master had no reason to believe that the motor was being used as charged.

(3) Where the owner of a vessel is proceeded against for the offence referred to in subsection (1), the owner is not guilty of the offence if it is proved:

(a) that, at the time of the use alleged to constitute the offence, the motor, or the vessel to which it was attached, was the subject of a hiring agreement that had not expired or a hiring agreement that had expired before the owner resumed possession,

(b) that, at the time of the hiring, the permit plate affixed to the motor corresponded to a permit authorising the hiring, and

(c) that, at the time of the hiring, the owner had no means of knowing that the motor would be used as charged.