New South Wales Consolidated Acts

LAW ENFORCEMENT AND NATIONAL SECURITY (ASSUMED IDENTITIES) ACT 1998 - SECT 5

5 What an approval authorises

(1) An assumed identity approval authorises the officer to whom it applies to acquire an assumed identity specified in the approval and to use that identity when carrying out the officer’s official duties. The officer can use an assumed identity under the authority of an assumed identity approval without having actually acquired the identity.

(2) For the purposes of this Act:

(a) an officer "acquires" an assumed identity by obtaining evidence of identity under the assumed identity, including by obtaining the making of an entry in any register or other record of information, and

(b) an officer "uses" an assumed identity by representing it to be the officer’s true identity.

(3) An assumed identity approval also authorises:

(a) the making (by the officer to whom the approval applies or by the person who gave the approval) of any false or misleading representation about the officer, for the purposes of or in connection with the acquisition or use of the assumed identity by the officer, and

(b) the use by the officer of the assumed identity to obtain evidence of identity.

(4) Evidence of identity of a kind that ordinarily authorises a person to exercise a function (such as a driver licence) does not, when acquired under the authority of an assumed identity approval, authorise the officer concerned to exercise any function that the officer could not otherwise lawfully exercise.

(5) However, the fact that an officer is not competent or qualified or otherwise authorised to exercise a particular function (such as the driving of a vehicle) does not prevent the acquisition by the officer under the authority of an assumed identity approval of evidence of identity of a kind that ordinarily authorises a person to exercise that function.