Victorian Consolidated Legislation

Summary Offences Act 1966 - SECT 10

Posting bills etc. and defacing property

10. Posting bills etc. and defacing property



(1) Any person who posts any placard bill sticker or other document on or
writes or paints on or otherwise defaces any road bridge or footpath or any
house building hoarding wall fence gate tree tree-guard post pillar hydrant
fire-alarm petrol pump or other structure whatsoever without the consent of
the occupier or owner of the premises concerned or of any person or body
having authority to give such consent shall be guilty of an offence.

Penalty: 15 penalty units or imprisonment for three months.

(2) Upon any proceedings for an offence against subsection (1)-

   (a)  the burden of proving any consent aforesaid shall be upon the
        defendant; and

   (b)  in the case of any placard, bill, sticker, poster, or other document
        containing an advertisement of a commercial nature any person who
        appears to the satisfaction of the court to have authorized the
        publication thereof or to be in any manner concerned in the promotion
        or management of any business or entertainment or any sport, game,
        exhibition, or other event of a commercial nature whatsoever referred
        to therein shall, unless he satisfies the court that he did not post
        such placard, bill, sticker, poster, or document or authorize the
        posting thereof and that otherwise he had no knowledge of such
        posting, be deemed to have posted such placard, bill, sticker, poster,
        or document (as the case may be).

(3) Nothing in subsection (2) shall affect the liability under subsection (1)
of any person who actually posts any such placard, bill, sticker, poster, or
other document and the conviction of any other person in relation thereto
shall not exonerate from any penalty under this section any person who
actually so posts any such placard, bill, sticker, poster, or document.

(4) Any person who without the authority of the publisher of a placard, bill,
sticker, poster, or other document containing an advertisement of a commercial
nature or of some person concerned in the promotion or management of any
business, entertainment, sport, game, exhibition, or other event referred to
therein posts the placard, bill, sticker, poster, or document in contravention
of the provisions of subsection (1) shall be liable upon conviction for an
offence against that subsection to a penalty of not more than 5 penalty units
or to imprisonment for a term of not more than six months.

(5) Upon any proceedings for an offence against subsection (1) the burden of
proving the authority referred to in subsection (4) shall be upon the
defendant.

(6) The court before which any person is convicted for an offence against this
section may, in addition to imposing any penalty, order the defendant to pay
to any person named in the order the cost of removing or obliterating any
thing written posted or painted without such consent as aforesaid and making
good any damage done thereby and every amount so ordered to be paid shall for
the purpose of enforcing the payment thereof be regarded as part of the
penalty and be recoverable accordingly.

Fire