New South Wales Consolidated Acts

COMMERCIAL VESSELS ACT 1979 - SECT 9

9 Permit plate to be affixed

(1) Subject to subsection (2), the owner and the master of a vessel the subject of a permit are each guilty of an offence against this Act if the vessel is in prescribed waters and there is not affixed thereto as prescribed the permit plate that corresponds to the permit.

(2) 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 the offence is alleged to have been committed, the vessel 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 vessel corresponded to a permit authorising that hiring, and

(c) that the owner had no means of knowing that the permit plate was no longer affixed to the vessel.