New South Wales Consolidated Acts

MOTOR DEALERS ACT 1974 - SECT 20

20 Annual fee and annual statement

(1) The holder of a licence shall, before the expiration of one month after each anniversary of the date on which the licence was granted, pay to the Director-General in respect of the year commencing on that anniversary the prescribed fee for the licence.

(2) A person who is or was the holder of a licence during a year, or part of a year, commencing on the date, or on an anniversary of the date, on which the licence was granted to the person, shall lodge with the Director-General a statement in respect of that year or part that is in a form approved by the Director-General and is signed by or on behalf of the holder.

(3) A statement referred to in subsection (2) shall be accompanied by such documents as may be prescribed.

(4) The holder of a licence or other person required under subsection (2) to lodge a statement shall lodge the statement (together with any documents required to accompany the statement pursuant to subsection (3)) within one month after the end of the year in respect of which, or part of which, the statement is lodged.

(5) The Director-General may, on the application of a person required to comply with subsection (1), or subsections (2) and (4), extend or further extend the time for compliance with the applicable subsection or subsections.

(6) Where the holder of a licence has failed to pay a fee, or lodge a statement, or pay a fee and lodge a statement, in accordance with this section, the Director-General shall give notice in writing to the holder that, unless the fee is paid or the statement lodged, or the fee is paid and the statement lodged, in accordance with this section, together with any prescribed late fee that the notice requires to be paid, before a day specified in the notice, being a day that is not earlier than 14 days after the giving of the notice, the licence will be cancelled.

(7) The Director-General shall cancel the licence held by a person who fails to pay a fee or lodge a statement, or pay a fee and lodge a statement, as referred to in a notice given under subsection (6).

(8) Subject to subsection (5), a person (not being the holder of a licence) to whom subsections (2) and (4) apply shall comply with those subsections.

(9) If, while a licence is in force, there occurs:

(a) between the time the application for the licence was granted and the time the first statement is lodged under subsection (2)-a change in the particulars specified in, or in connection with, the application, or

(b) between the lodging of successive annual statements under subsection (2)-a change in the particulars specified in the earlier of those statements,

the holder of the licence shall, within 14 days after the occurrence of the change, give to the Director-General notice in writing specifying particulars of the change.

(10) A person shall not, in or in relation to a statement required to be lodged under subsection (2) or a notice required to be given under subsection (9), make a statement that is false or misleading by reason of the inclusion therein of any false or misleading matter or the omission therefrom of any material matter.

(11) It is a defence to a prosecution of a person for an offence under subsection (10) if the person proves that, when the statement was lodged or the notice given, the person:

(a) believed on reasonable grounds that the false matter was true,

(b) believed on reasonable grounds that the misleading matter was not misleading,

(c) in the case of an omission-believed on reasonable grounds that no material matter had been omitted, or

(d) in the case of an omission-did not know that the omitted matter was material.