ROAD TRAFFIC ACT 1974 - SECT 80IB
ROAD TRAFFIC ACT 1974 - SECT 80IB
80IB . Impounding expenses, payment of before vehicle released
(1) When a vehicle has
been impounded under Subdivision 2 or on an impounding order and the
impounding period ends, the Commissioner may refuse to release the vehicle
until the Commissioner has been paid an amount specified by the Commissioner
as being equivalent to all reasonable expenses of the Commissioner in
impounding the vehicle.
(2A) If the vehicle
impounded under Subdivision 2 is a substitute vehicle impounded under
section 79BCB, the expenses referred to in subsection (1) are both the
expenses incurred in impounding the substitute vehicle and any unpaid expenses
incurred in impounding the initially impounded vehicle (as defined in
section 79BCA(1)).
(2) Subsection (1)
applies even if the person seeking the release of the vehicle is not the
person suspected of having committed, or found to have committed, the offence
for which the vehicle was impounded.
(3) The Commissioner
may release the vehicle without requiring payment of the amount described in
subsection (1) if the Commissioner considers it appropriate in the
circumstances to do so.
(4) If payment of the
amount described in subsection (1) is made for the release of the vehicle,
that payment extinguishes any liability under section 79E or 80H, as the case
requires, to pay the Commissioner for expenses of the impounding even though
the payment may not have been made by the person who was liable under that
section.
(5) In the case of a
vehicle impounded under Subdivision 2 the Commissioner has to refund, to the
person who made the payment, an amount described in subsection (1) that was
paid to the Commissioner for the release of the vehicle if —
(a) no
charge of committing the offence for which the vehicle was impounded is laid
during the period of one year after the day on which the offence is suspected
to have been committed; or
(b)
during the period described in paragraph (a) a person is charged with
committing the offence but the person is acquitted of that offence, or the
charge is withdrawn or dismissed.
[Section 80IB inserted: No. 4 of 2007 s. 9;
amended: No. 24 of 2008 s. 23 and 25; No. 23 of 2009 s. 22; No. 20 of 2010 s.
12; No. 51 of 2016 s. 38.]