New South Wales Consolidated Acts

FINES ACT 1996 - SECT 38

38 Circumstances in which person issued with penalty reminder notice for vehicle or vessel offence is not liable to pay penalty

(1) A person on whom a penalty reminder notice is served in relation to a vehicle or vessel offence is not liable to make any payment under the penalty notice if--

(a) on or before the due date specified in the penalty reminder notice, the appropriate officer receives an approved nomination notice containing the nomination details of the person who was driving or in charge of the vehicle or vessel concerned at all relevant times relating to the offence, or

(b) the person satisfies the appropriate officer that the person did not know and could not with reasonable diligence have ascertained the nomination details.

(2) The Commissioner may approve 1 or more notices (
"approved nomination notices" ) to be used to nominate the person driving or in charge of a vehicle or vessel under this section.

(3) Without limiting subsection (2), the Commissioner may approve notices under that subsection--

(a) to be provided in printed or electronic form (or both), and

(b) to be used in relation to more than 1 offence involving 1 or more vehicles or vessels, if the person given the penalty reminder notice is a corporation.

(3A) An appropriate officer may, by written notice (a
"verification notice" ) served on a person who gives an approved nomination notice, require the person to supply a statutory declaration for use in court proceedings verifying any of the information contained in the approved nomination notice that is specified in the verification notice.

(3B) A person served with a verification notice must supply the required statutory declaration within the period specified in the notice (being a period of not less than 7 days after the date of service).

: Maximum penalty--50 penalty units (in the case of an individual) and 100 penalty units (in the case of a corporation).

(3C) A statutory declaration that is given for the purposes of this section, if produced in any proceedings against the person named in the declaration in respect of the vehicle or vessel offence concerned, is admissible and is prima facie evidence that the person was driving or in charge of the vehicle or vessel at all relevant times relating to the offence.

(3D) A statutory declaration that relates to more than one vehicle or vessel offence is not a statutory declaration under, or for the purposes of, this section unless each of the offences is a camera recorded offence (within the meaning of Division 2 of Part 7.3 of the Road Transport Act 2013 ) detected by the same camera device at approximately the same time.

(3E) A person must not, in an approved nomination notice given under subsection (1), falsely nominate a person (including the person making the nomination) as the person who was driving or in charge of the vehicle or vessel at the time the offence occurred.

: Maximum penalty--

(a) if the offence relates to a vehicle or vessel registered or owned otherwise than in the name of an individual--200 penalty units, or

(b) in any other case--100 penalty units.

(3F) A person falsely nominates a person as the person driving or in charge of a vehicle or vessel for the purposes of subsection (3E) if false nomination details for the person are given in an approved nomination notice.

(3G) A person must not offer or agree to have the person's nomination details used in an approved nomination notice relating to a vehicle or vessel offence if the person was not driving or in charge of the vehicle or vessel at all relevant times relating to the offence.

: Maximum penalty--

(a) if the offence relates to a vehicle or vessel registered or owned otherwise than in the name of an individual--100 penalty units, or

(b) otherwise--50 penalty units.

(4) In this section--

"appropriate officer" , in relation to a penalty reminder notice, means an appropriate officer for the penalty notice to which the penalty reminder notice relates or another person or body specified in the penalty reminder notice.

"Australian driver licence" has the same meaning as in the Road Transport Act 2013 .

"foreign driver licence" has the same meaning as in the Road Transport Act 2013 .

"nomination details" of a person means--

(a) the person's name, address and date of birth, and

(b) if the offence relates to a vehicle--

(i) the number of the person's Australian driver licence or foreign driver licence, and

(ii) if the person holds a foreign driver licence--the jurisdiction that issued the licence.

"vehicle or vessel offence" means any of the following offences--

(a) an offence of standing or parking a vehicle or of causing or permitting a vehicle to stand, wait or be parked in contravention of any law,

(b1) an offence relating to a vehicle or vessel (such as exceeding the speed limit) that is detected by an approved traffic enforcement device (within the meaning of the Road Transport Act 2013 ) or an approved enforcement device (within the meaning of Schedule 1A to the Marine Safety Act 1998 ) and in respect of which the penalty notice is served subsequently on the owner or responsible person for the vehicle or the owner of the vessel,

(c) an offence under section 23 of the Centennial Park and Moore Park Trust Act 1983 ,

(d) a vehicle offence within the meaning of the Crown Land Management Act 2016 ,

(e) an offence under section 87 (Liability of vehicle owner for parking offences) of the Forestry Act 2012 ,

(e1) an offence under section 146 of the Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997 ,

(f) an offence under section 32A of the Impounding Act 1993 ,

(g) an offence under section 651 of the Local Government Act 1993 ,

(g1) an offence under Part 4 of Schedule 1A to the Marine Safety Act 1998 ,

(i) an offence under section 159 of the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974 ,

(j) an offence under section 29 of the Parramatta Park Trust Act 2001 ,

(k1) an offence under Division 2 of Part 7.3 of the Road Transport Act 2013 ,

(l) an offence under section 244 of the Roads Act 1993 ,

(m) an offence under section 22A of the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust Act 1980 ,

(o) an offence under section 78 of the Sydney Olympic Park Authority Act 2001 ,

(p) an offence under section 116 of the Transport Administration Act 1988 ,

(q) an offence relating to a vehicle or vessel that is of a kind prescribed by the regulations.