New South Wales Consolidated Acts

NEW SOUTH WALES CRIME COMMISSION ACT 1985 - SECT 12

12 Seizure pursuant to search warrant-special provisions

(1) Where, in the course of searching, in accordance with the terms of a search warrant issued under section 11, for things of the relevant kind (within the meaning of that section), the person executing the warrant finds a thing that the person believes on reasonable grounds to be evidence that would be admissible in the prosecution of a person for a relevant offence, or for an indictable offence against the law of the Commonwealth, of a State or of a Territory, and the first-mentioned person believes on reasonable grounds that it is necessary to seize the thing in order to prevent its concealment, loss, mutilation or destruction, or its use in committing such an offence, that person may seize the thing and, if the thing is so seized, it shall be deemed, for the purposes of this Act, to have been seized pursuant to the warrant.

(2) Where a thing is seized pursuant to a search warrant issued under section 11:

(a) the Commission may retain the thing if, and for so long as, retention of the thing by the Commission is reasonably necessary for the purposes of an investigation to which the thing is relevant, and

(b) if the retention of the thing by the Commission is not, or ceases to be, reasonably necessary for such purposes, the Commission shall cause the thing to be delivered to:

(i) if the thing may be used in evidence in proceedings of a kind referred to in subsection (5)-the authority or person responsible for taking the proceedings, or

(ii) if subparagraph (i) does not apply-the person who appears to the Commission to be entitled to the possession of the thing,

unless the Commission has furnished the thing to the Attorney General in accordance with section 6 (2).

(3) The Commission may, instead of delivering a thing in accordance with subsection (2) (b) (ii), deliver the thing to the Attorney General or the Director of Public Prosecutions for the purpose of assisting in the investigation of criminal offences, where the Commission is satisfied that the thing is likely to be useful for that purpose.

(3A) If it appears to the Commission:

(a) that there is no person who is entitled to possession of any thing referred to in subsection (2), or

(b) that there is such a person, but the person does not wish to have possession of any such thing,

the Commission may apply to the Local Court for directions as to its disposal and dispose of it in accordance with the directions given by the Local Court in response to the application.

(4) In this section, "thing" includes a document.

(5) Without limiting the generality of section 11 (2) (a), a reference in section 11 to a thing connected with a matter relating to a relevant criminal activity, being a matter into which the Commission is conducting an investigation, includes a reference to a thing that may be used in evidence in proceedings for the taking, by or on behalf of the Crown in right of the State, of civil remedies in respect of a matter connected with, or arising out of, an offence to which the relevant criminal activity relates.