TRAFFIC REGULATIONS 1999 - REG 53 Liability of owner
TRAFFIC REGULATIONS 1999 - REG 53
Liability of owner(1) Subject to this regulation, if an offence is committed and the name of the offender is not ascertained at the time of issuing the infringement notice relating to the offence, the owner of the vehicle at the time the offence occurs is to be taken to have committed the offence whether or not the owner in fact committed the offence.
(2) The owner of a vehicle is not to be taken to have committed an offence if:
(a) the vehicle was, at the time of the alleged offence, stolen or unlawfully used without the owner's consent;
(b) the vehicle is registered under the Motor Vehicles Act 1949 and at the time of the alleged offence:
(i) the owner had sold or disposed of the vehicle but the registration of the vehicle had not been transferred to the new owner; and
(ii) the owner had provided the Registrar with a notice of disposal in respect of the vehicle as required by section 20 of that Act; or
(c) within 14 days after the owner receives or is served with the first of an infringement notice, a courtesy letter under Part 2, Division 3 of the Fines and Penalties (Recovery) Act 2001 or a summons in relation to the offence, the owner delivers to an appropriate place a statutory declaration made by the owner:
(i) stating that some other person was in control of the vehicle at the time the offence was committed and setting out the name and address of that other person and any other information known to the owner that may assist in identifying or locating that other person;
(ii) stating that the vehicle was sold before the offence was committed and setting out the date of the sale, the name and address of the person to whom it was sold and, if the sale was made through an agent, the name and address of the agent; or
(iii) stating that at the time when the offence was committed the vehicle had been stolen or was being used unlawfully without the owner's consent.
(3) If the owner of the vehicle is a body corporate, a director, secretary or manager of the body corporate may make a statutory declaration for the purposes of subregulation (2).
(4) If the owner of the vehicle is the Territory, the Commonwealth, a State or another Territory of the Commonwealth or a statutory corporation, a person authorised, or apparently authorised, for the purpose may make a statutory declaration for the purposes of subregulation (2).
(5) A person named in a statutory declaration as being in control of a vehicle at the time of an offence cannot be found guilty of the offence unless a copy of the statutory declaration is affixed to the summons for the offence at the time the summons is served on the person.
(6) A statutory declaration referred to in subregulation (2)(c):
(a) is admissible in evidence in a prosecution against the person in relation to the offence; and
(b) is evidence that the person was the driver of the vehicle at the time of the offence.
(7) If a person is specified as the new owner of a vehicle in a notice of disposal referred to in subregulation (2)(b):
(a) the person is to be taken to be the owner of the vehicle at the time of the offence for the purposes of this regulation (other than subregulation (2)(b)); and
(b) this regulation applies as if a reference to the owner of the vehicle (other than in subregulation (2)(b)) were a reference to the person.
(8) Subject to subregulation (9), nothing in this regulation affects the liability of an actual offender who is not the owner of the vehicle.
(9) If a penalty has been imposed on a person in relation to an offence:
(a) another person cannot be charged with the same offence; and
(b) a further penalty cannot be imposed on or recovered from another person in relation to the same offence.
(10) Subregulation (9) does not apply if the traffic infringement notice in relation to the offence is withdrawn in accordance with regulation 43.