LIQUOR CONTROL ACT 1988 - SECT 109

LIQUOR CONTROL ACT 1988 - SECT 109

109 .         Sale of liquor, offences as to

        (1)         Subject to this Act, a person who, whether personally or by an employee or agent, sells any liquor commits an offence unless that person —

            (a)         is the holder of a licence or permit —

                  (i)         the operation of which is not suspended; and

                  (ii)         which authorises the sale;

                or

            (b)         is an employee or an agent of a person so authorised, and is lawfully acting in that capacity,

                or the sale is deemed to have been made under such a licence or permit.

        Penalty: a fine of $20 000 and imprisonment for 2 years, but the minimum penalty is a fine of $2 000.

        (2)         Where liquor is sold in contravention of subsection (1) on any premises, every occupier of the premises who knowingly permits the offence may be charged with an offence of the same kind.

        (3)         A person who —

            (a)         carries liquor about for the purpose of sale; or

            (b)         offers or exposes liquor for sale at or upon any place other than a place at or upon which liquor may lawfully be sold; or

            (c)         carries liquor, for the purpose of sale, to a place other than a place at or upon which liquor may lawfully be sold; or

            (d)         employs any person, or engages any person as an agent, so to do,

                commits an offence.

        Penalty: a fine of $10 000, but the minimum penalty is a fine of $1 000.

        (4A)         A licensee, or an employee or agent of a licensee (the seller ), commits an offence if —

            (a)         the seller sells liquor to another person (the buyer ) whom the seller reasonably believes, or ought reasonably to believe, intends to sell the liquor in contravention of subsection (1); and

            (b)         the buyer sells the liquor in contravention of subsection (1).

        Penalty: a fine of $20 000 and imprisonment for 2 years, but the minimum penalty is a fine of $2 000.

        (4)         Where liquor is carried, offered or exposed by a person in contravention of subsection (3) and is so carried, offered or exposed on behalf of another person, that other person shall be deemed also to have contravened that subsection.

        (5)         It is a defence to a prosecution for a contravention of subsection (3) or (4) if it is proved that the liquor was carried, offered or exposed, as the case may be, for the purpose of a sale that may lawfully be made.

        (6)         In a prosecution for a contravention of subsection (3), the burden of proving that liquor that has been carried about, or carried to any place, was not so carried for the purpose of sale is on the person carrying it, unless —

            (a)         the container or packaging is labelled in writing, on the outside, with the name and address of the vendor, of the purchaser and of any other person to whom the liquor is to be delivered; or

            (b)         those particulars and a description of, and the quantity of, the liquor is set out in an invoice or other document in the possession of the carrier and the invoice or other document is produced to an authorised officer, on demand.

        (7)         It is no defence to a charge of an offence under subsection (3) that the accused or the employer or principal of the accused is the holder of a licence or permit.

        (8)         Where a person is proved to have committed an offence against this section, any vehicle in which liquor concerned in that offence was carried may be seized, is liable to forfeiture, and may be dealt with as though it were a container to which section 113 applied.

        [Section 109 amended: No. 84 of 2004 s. 80 and 82; No. 73 of 2006 s. 76 and 110; No. 56 of 2010 s. 52.]