EXPIATION OF OFFENCES ACT 1996 - SECT 5

EXPIATION OF OFFENCES ACT 1996 - SECT 5

5—Certain offences may be expiated

        (1)         If an expiation fee is fixed by or under an Act, regulation or by-law in respect of an offence, an expiation notice may be given under this Act to a person alleged to have committed the offence and the alleged offence may accordingly be expiated in accordance with this Act.

        (2)         Subsection (1) applies in relation to offences committed before or after the commencement of this Act.

        (3)         Subject to subsection (4), a power under an Act to impose a penalty for the contravention of a regulation or by-law will be taken to include the power—

            (a)         to provide that an alleged offence against the regulation or by-law may be expiated in accordance with this Act; and

            (b)         to fix for that purpose an expiation fee not exceeding—

                  (i)         if the maximum fine prescribed for the offence is expressed as a divisional fine—a divisional expiation fee of the same division; or

                  (ii)         in any other case—

                        (A)         $315; or

                        (B)         25% of the maximum fine prescribed for the offence,

whichever is the lesser.

        (4)         An offence against a regulation or by-law that is an offence involving violence is not and cannot be, despite subsection (3) or the provisions of any other Act, an expiable offence.

Notes—

        •         Various other Acts (eg the Controlled Substances Act 1984 ) provide that certain offences may be expiated in accordance with this Act.

        •         Section 28A of the Acts Interpretation Act 1915 sets out a scale of divisional expiation fees for use when an expiation fee is expressed as a divisional fee (ie not in dollars).