Queensland Consolidated Acts

POLICE POWERS AND RESPONSIBILITIES ACT 2000 - SECT 773

773 Counting the occasions

(1) For sections 759 , 761 , 764 (2) and 766 , for an occasion of the commission of an offence to be counted in addition to another occasion counted, an occasion must be a separate occasion, that is, an event or series of events that happened on an occasion separate to the event or series of events making up the other occasion.

(2) In section 759 , a reference to an evasion offence committed on a previous occasion is a reference to an evasion offence committed on an occasion before the occasion of the evasion offence giving rise to the application for the forfeiture order.

(3) Subject to subsections (1) and (2) , for a decision under section 759 , 761 , 764 (2) or 766 of whether or not a person has, or has previously, been charged with, or found guilty of, an evasion offence committed on a previous occasion or any occasion or occasions, the following do not matter—

(a) whether or not any finding of guilt relied on relates to a charge heard and decided together with another charge or other charges relating to another or other findings of guilt being relied on;

(b) whether or not findings of guilt relied on relate to charges that were heard and decided in the order in which the occasions of the commission of offences to which they related happened;

(c) whether or not any occasion of the commission of an offence, or any charge or any finding of guilt, relied on happened before or after any occasion of the commission of an offence, charge or finding of guilt also relied on.

Example—

An offender commits evasion offences on 1 January (offence 1) and 1 May (offence 2). The offender is charged with offence 1 on 15 January and offence 2 on 14 May. The offender is convicted of offence 2 on 15 June and offence 1 on 1 October. When a court considers the application for impoundment or forfeiture on 1 December, for the purpose of counting the occasions mentioned in subsection (1) , there are 2 occasions the court may rely on to make an order.

(4) For a decision under section 765 or 766 , the following do not matter—

(a) whether or not any finding of guilt relied on is for an offence in relation to which the application was originally started;

Example for paragraph (a)—

An application may relate to particular evasion offences but before the application is decided, the driver is found guilty of another evasion offence. The court may rely on the latter finding of guilt when making an order under the sections mentioned.

(b) whether or not any finding of guilt relied on in an application relates to an offence committed before or after the application was started.