New South Wales Consolidated Acts

ELECTRICITY (CONSUMER SAFETY) ACT 2004 - SECT 18

18 Acquisition guarantee may be defence to certain offences

(cf 1946 No 13, s 21D (1), (3) and (4))

(1) Subject to this section, proceedings against a person for an offence under section 16 (1) are to be dismissed if it is proved that:

(a) the defendant received an acquisition guarantee in respect of the electrical article to which the offence relates from the person from whom the defendant obtained the electrical article, and

(b) the defendant had no reason to believe that, at the time of the alleged offence:

(i) if the electrical article was a declared electrical article-the model of the article did not have a model approval or had not been approved or certified under a recognised external approval scheme or the article was not of a class, description or model approved or registered by a relevant authority for another State or a Territory, and

(ii) the electrical article was not marked as prescribed by the regulations, and

(iii) the electrical article did not comply with the class specifications (if any), the model specifications (if any) and the other specifications or requirements (if any) for the article prescribed by the regulations.

(2) Subsection (1) does not apply unless, not later than 7 days after service on the defendant of the process commencing proceedings for the offence:

(a) the defendant has given a written notice to the prosecutor of the defendant’s intention to rely on an acquisition guarantee and the notice specifies the following:

(i) the name of the acquisition guarantor,

(ii) any name under which the acquisition guarantor trades,

(iii) the address referred to in section 17 (2) (d) in relation to the acquisition guarantor, and

(b) the defendant has given a written notice to the acquisition guarantor of the defendant’s intention to rely on the guarantee, and

(c) the defendant has given the prosecutor a copy of the guarantee.

(3) An acquisition guarantor given notice under subsection (2) is entitled to offer evidence at the hearing of the proceedings to which the notice relates and the court may, if it thinks fit, adjourn the hearing to enable the guarantor to do so.