(1) A shopkeeper must
cause his or her shop to be closed and fastened against the admission of the
public at all times except those at which he or she is entitled to open the
shop under this Act.
Maximum penalty: $100 000.
(2) Subject to this
section, a person must not sell, or cause or permit to be sold, any goods in
or about a shop at a time when the shop is required by subsection (1) to
be closed.
Maximum penalty: $100 000.
(7) Where, at a time
when a shop is required by this Act to be closed, a person (other than the
shopkeeper or an employee or agent of the shopkeeper) is in the shop for the
purpose of—
(a)
purchasing goods; or
(b)
inspecting goods; or
(c)
taking delivery of goods purchased,
the shopkeeper is guilty of an offence.
Maximum penalty: $100 000.
(7a) In proceedings
for an offence under subsection (7), an allegation in the complaint that
a person was in a shop for the purpose of—
(a)
purchasing goods; or
(b)
inspecting goods; or
(c)
taking delivery of goods purchased,
will be accepted as proved in the absence of proof to the contrary.
(7b) It is a defence
to a charge of an offence under subsection (7) to prove that the
defendant did not know, and could not reasonably be expected to have known,
that a person was in the shop for the purpose of—
(a)
purchasing goods; or
(b)
inspecting goods; or
(c)
taking delivery of goods purchased.
(8) Subject to this
section a person must not carry on the business of pawnbroking, or cause or
permit that business to be carried on, in or about a shop at a time when the
shop is required by subsection (1) to be closed.
Maximum penalty: $100 000.
(8a) Where a court
imposes a penalty for an offence against this section it may fix, by way of
additional penalty, an amount determined or estimated by the court as the
amount by which the convicted defendant benefited from trading that was, by
virtue of this Act, unlawful on the day on which the offence was committed.
(9) No offence is
committed under this section by reason only of the fact that a shopkeeper, or
a person employed or engaged in the shop, is engaged within a period of 30
minutes after closing time—
(a) in
serving customers who were in the shop at closing time; or
(11) In any
proceedings for an offence against this section, it is a defence for the
defendant to prove that at the time of the alleged offence, and—
(a)
throughout the period of seven days immediately preceding that time; or
(b) in
the case of a shop that was established within that period of seven days,
throughout the period immediately preceding that time during which the
business of that shop was carried on,
the shop, in relation to which it is alleged the offence was committed, was an
exempt shop.
(12) In any
proceedings for an offence against this section, it is a defence for the
defendant to prove that at the time of the alleged offence the defendant was
acting within the ambit of an exemption under section 5.