Victorian Numbered Acts Victorian Numbered Acts(1) If a document or other thing is produced at an examination or to the Chief Examiner in accordance with a witness summons, the Chief Examiner may inspect the document or thing and may then authorise in writing a member of the police force to do any one or more of the following—
(a) inspect the document or thing;
(b) in the case of a document, take extracts from it or make copies of, if the member of the police force considers it necessary for the purposes of the investigation of the organised crime offence;
(c) take any photographs or audio or visual recordings of the document or thing that the member of the police force considers necessary for the purposes of the investigation of the organised crime offence;
(d) subject to this section, retain the document or thing if, and for so long as, the member of the police force considers that retention of the document or thing is reasonably necessary—
(i) for the purposes of an investigation into an organised crime offence; or
(ii) to enable evidence of an organised crime offence to be obtained for the purposes of any proceeding in relation to that offence.
(2) For the purpose of doing anything referred to in sub-section (1)(a), (b) or (c), the Chief Examiner may authorise the member to retain the document or other thing for a period not exceeding 7 days that is necessary to do that thing.
(3) If a member of the police force retains a document or other thing under sub-section (1)(d) for a period exceeding 7 days, he or she must, as soon as practicable, bring the document or thing before the Magistrates' Court so that the matter may be dealt with according to law.
(4) A thing that is bulky or cumbersome may be brought before the Magistrates' Court by giving evidence on oath to the Court as to the present whereabouts of the thing and by producing a photograph of it.
(5) The Magistrates' Court may direct that the thing be returned to the person who produced it to the Chief Examiner, subject to any condition that the Court thinks fit, if in the opinion of the Court it can be returned consistently with the interests of justice.
(6) If a member of the police force retains a document or other thing under sub-section (1)(d), he or she must take reasonable steps to return the document or thing to the person who produced it to the Chief Examiner if the reason for its retention no longer exists.
(7) If the document or thing retained has not been returned to the person who produced it to the Chief Examiner, the person may apply to the Magistrates' Court at any time for its return.