Queensland Consolidated Acts

PENALTIES AND SENTENCES ACT 1992 - SECT 194

194 Restoration of property

(1) If an offender is convicted on indictment on a charge of which the unlawful obtaining of property by the offender is an element, then, on the complaint of—

(a) the owner of property; or

(b) a person who is legally entitled to possession of the property;

the court may order the property to be restored to the owner or person.

(2) The order—

(a) may be enforced as a judgment; and

(b) is binding on the offender, and any person claiming through the offender, as determining the ownership of the property;

but, as regards any other person, has the effect only of changing the possession of the property, and does not affect any right of property or right of action.

(3) In a case to which subsection (1) applies, the court may order that any personal property—

(a) that is found in the offender’s possession; and

(b) that appears to the court to have been obtained, directly or indirectly, from the unlawful obtaining mentioned in subsection (1) ;

be delivered to the person who appears to the court to be entitled to the personal property.

(4) This section does not apply to a valuable security if it appears that—

(a) the security has been paid or discharged in good faith by a person liable to make payment of the security; or

(b) if the security is a negotiable instrument—the security has been taken or received by transfer or delivery in good faith by a person for a valuable consideration without notice and the person did not have reasonable cause to suspect that the security had been unlawfully obtained.

(5) In subsection (4) —

"valuable security" includes any document that—

(a) is the property of any person; and

(b) is evidence of the ownership of any property or of the right to recover or receive any property.