New South Wales Consolidated Acts

FINES ACT 1996 - SECT 38

38 Circumstances in which person issued with penalty reminder notice for vehicle or vessel offence is not liable to pay penalty

(1) A person on whom a penalty reminder notice is served in relation to a vehicle or vessel offence is not liable to make any payment under the penalty notice if the person:

(a) on or before the due date specified in the penalty reminder notice, gives notice in accordance with subsection (1A) of the name and address of some other person who was in charge of the vehicle or vessel concerned at all relevant times relating to the offence, or

(b) satisfies the appropriate officer for the penalty notice to which the penalty reminder notice relates (or other person or body specified in the penalty reminder notice) that the person did not know and could not with reasonable diligence have ascertained that name and address.

(1A) A notice for the purposes of subsection (1) (a) must:

(a) be verified by statutory declaration, and

(b) be given to the appropriate officer for the penalty notice to which the penalty reminder notice relates (or other person or body specified in the penalty reminder notice).

(2) A notice under subsection (1) (a) that is verified by statutory declaration if produced in any proceedings against the person named in it and in respect of the vehicle or vessel offence concerned is prima facie evidence that the person was in charge of the vehicle or vessel at all relevant times relating to the offence.

(3) A notice that relates to more than one vehicle or vessel offence is taken not to be a notice under, or for the purposes of, subsection (1).

(3A) A person must not, in a notice given under subsection (1) (a), make a statement or provide information knowing that it is false or misleading in a material particular.

Maximum penalty: 50 penalty units.

(3B) If the same facts establish an offence under this section and an offence under the Oaths Act 1900 , the person is not liable to be convicted of both offences.

(4) In this section:
"vehicle or vessel offence" means any of the following offences:

(a) an offence of standing or parking a vehicle or of causing or permitting a vehicle to stand, wait or be parked in contravention of any law,

(b) an offence relating to a vehicle or vessel (such as exceeding the speed limit) that is detected by an approved average speed detection device, approved camera detection device or an approved speed measuring device within the meaning of the Road Transport (Safety and Traffic Management) Act 1999 and in respect of which the penalty notice is served subsequently on the owner or responsible person for the vehicle or the owner of the vessel,

(c) an offence under section 23 of the Centennial Park and Moore Park Trust Act 1983 ,

(d) an offence under section 161 of the Crown Lands Act 1989 ,

(e) an offence under section 38C of the Forestry Act 1916 ,

(f) an offence under section 32A of the Impounding Act 1993 ,

(g) an offence under section 651 of the Local Government Act 1993 ,

(h) an offence under section 30C of the Maritime Services Act 1935 ,

(i) an offence under section 159 of the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974 ,

(j) an offence under section 29 of the Parramatta Park Trust Act 2001 ,

(k) an offence under section 179 of the Road Transport (General) Act 2005 ,

(l) an offence under section 244 of the Roads Act 1993 ,

(m) an offence under section 22A of the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust Act 1980 ,

(n) an offence under section 20A of the State Sports Centre Trust Act 1984 ,

(o) an offence under section 78 of the Sydney Olympic Park Authority Act 2001 ,

(p) an offence under section 116 of the Transport Administration Act 1988 ,

(q) an offence relating to a vehicle or vessel that is of a kind prescribed by the regulations.