Australian Capital Territory Numbered Acts Australian Capital Territory Numbered Acts24. (1) Where, for the purposes of the prosecution of an offence against this Part, it is necessary to establish the state of mind of a body corporate or a natural person in relation to particular conduct, it is sufficient to prove that—
(a) a director, servant or agent of the body corporate, or a servant or agent of the person—
(i) engaged in that conduct; and
(ii) had that state of mind; and
(b) that conduct was within the scope of the actual or apparent authority of that director, servant or agent.
(2) In subsection (1), a reference to the state of mind of a body corporate or person includes a reference to—
(a) the knowledge, intention, opinion, belief or purpose of the body corporate or person; and
(b) the reasons of the body corporate or person for the intention, opinion, belief or purpose.
(3) Any conduct engaged in—
(a) on behalf of a body corporate by a director, servant or agent of the body corporate; or
(b) on behalf of a natural person by a servant or agent of the person;
within the scope of the actual or apparent authority of that director, servant or agent, is taken, for the purposes of such a prosecution, to have been engaged in also by the body corporate or person.
(4) Subsection (3) does not apply if the body corporate or person proves that it, he or she took reasonable precautions, and exercised due diligence, to avoid the conduct.
(5) Where—
(a) a natural person is convicted of an offence against this Part; and
(b) the person would not have been convicted of the offence but for subsections (1) and (3);
the person is not liable to be punished by imprisonment for that offence.
(6) In this section, a reference to a director of a body corporate shall be read as including a reference to a member of a body corporate incorporated for a public purpose by a law of the Territory, the Commonwealth, a State or another Territory.
(7) In this section, a reference to engaging in conduct shall be read as including a reference to failing or refusing to engage in conduct.