Western Australian Consolidated Acts Western Australian Consolidated Acts (1) The Commissioner
may authorise in writing a person to act as an undercover officer and may in
writing revoke that authority.
(2) An authorised
person may, whilst acting as an undercover officer and subject to
section 26(2) or to subsection (4), as the case requires, acquire
and have in his possession a prohibited drug or prohibited plant for the
purpose of detecting the commission of an offence.
(3) An authorised
person who exercises the power conferred on him by subsection (2) is not
an accomplice in respect of, and does not commit, any offence detected by that
exercise and his evidence in any proceedings against another person for that
offence is not the evidence of an accomplice.
(4) An authorised
person who —
(a) is
not a police officer; and
(b)
after having been warned under subsection (5), acquires a prohibited drug
or prohibited plant whilst acting as an undercover officer for the purpose of
detecting the commission of an offence and does not deliver the prohibited
drug or prohibited plant to a police officer as soon as is reasonably
practicable after that acquisition,
commits a simple
offence.
(5) The Commissioner
shall warn in writing an authorised person who is not a police officer that
if, having acquired a prohibited drug or prohibited plant whilst acting as an
undercover officer for the purpose of detecting the commission of an offence,
that authorised person does not deliver the prohibited drug or prohibited
plant to a police officer as soon as is reasonably practicable after that
acquisition, that authorised person commits a simple offence under
subsection (4).
(6) A certificate
signed by the Commissioner and stating that the person named in that
certificate was, at the time or during the period specified in that
certificate, an authorised person acting as an undercover officer shall, for
the purposes of this section, be sufficient evidence of that fact unless the
contrary is proved.
(7) The Commissioner
shall, whenever requested to do so by the Minister, furnish the Minister with
a report in writing containing such particulars of the activities of
authorised persons as the Minister requires.
(8) In this
section —
authorised person means person authorised under
subsection (1) to act as an undercover officer, which authority has not
been revoked under that subsection;
undercover officer means person whose identity or
purpose is for the time being concealed for the purpose of detecting the
commission of an offence.
[Section 31 amended by No. 44 of 1995
s. 11.]