GRAFFITI CONTROL ACT 2001 - SECT 9
GRAFFITI CONTROL ACT 2001 - SECT 9
(1) A person who marks
graffiti is guilty of an offence.
Maximum penalty: $5 000 or imprisonment for 12 months.
(1a) A person who
marks graffiti—
(a)
within a cemetery; or
(b) on
or within a public memorial; or
(c) on
or within a place of public worship or religious practice,
is guilty of an offence.
Maximum penalty: $7 500 or 18 months imprisonment.
(2) A person who aids,
abets, counsels or procures the commission of an offence against
subsection (1) is liable to be prosecuted and punished as a principal
offender.
(3) A court finding a
person guilty of a prescribed graffiti offence must—
(a) if
the court is satisfied that a suitable program exists for the removal or
obliteration, under the supervision of an appropriate authority, of graffiti
on any property and that it will be reasonably practicable for the person to
participate in that program—order that the person participate in that
program (and, in doing so, comply with all reasonable directions of the
appropriate authority); or
(b) in
any other case—order that the person pay such compensation as the court
thinks fit to the owner or occupier of the property in relation to which the
offence was committed.
(3a) A court finding a
person guilty of a prescribed graffiti offence may, in addition to making an
order under subsection (3), in relation to an offence where the damage
consists of—
(a)
graffiti that is visible from a public place; or
(b)
graffiti on public property,
order that the person pay to any person who has removed or obliterated the
graffiti, or caused the graffiti to be removed or obliterated, a reasonable
amount for the removal or obliteration.
(4) An order under
subsection (3)(a) may be enforced as if it were an order requiring the
performance of community service (and in any enforcement proceedings the court
may exercise any power that it could exercise in relation to an order
requiring the performance of community service).
(5) In this
section—
"appropriate authority" means a State or local government authority;
"prescribed graffiti offence" means—
(a) an
offence against this section; or
(b) an
offence against section 85 of the Criminal Law Consolidation
Act 1935 where the conduct constituting the offence consists of, or
includes, the marking of graffiti;
"public memorial" means a statue, structure or other property which is
situated in a public place in honour, or in the memory, of a person or class
of persons (whether alive or deceased);
"public property" means property owned by, vested in, or under the control or
management of—
(a) the
Crown, or an agent or instrumentality of the Crown; or
(b) a
body corporate established by an Act; or
(c) a
council within the meaning of the Local Government Act 1999 .