New South Wales Consolidated Acts

HUNTER WATER ACT 1991 - SECT 30

30 Illegal diversion of water

(1) A person must not:

(a) wrongfully take, use or divert any water from which the Corporation draws its supply or that is available for supply by the Corporation or that is in any pipe or work used for supply by the Corporation, or

(b) wrongfully alter the index of a meter or prevent a meter from duly registering the quantity of water supplied by the Corporation.

Maximum penalty: 100 penalty units (or 200 penalty units in the case of a corporation).

(2) It is to be presumed, unless the contrary is proved, that any wrongful taking or diversion of water to, or any wrongful use of water on, any land was at the direction, or with the connivance, of the owner or, if the land is occupied by a person other than the owner, of the occupier of the land.

(3) If, in connection with the pipes or other apparatus of the Corporation used to supply water to any land, there exists any artificial means for:

(a) taking, using or diverting the water, or

(b) altering the index of a meter or preventing it from duly registering the quantity of water supplied,

it is to be presumed, unless the contrary is proved, that the taking, use, diversion, alteration or prevention was wrongfully effected or caused by the owner or, if the land is occupied by a person other than the owner, by the occupier of the land.