Western Australian Current Acts Western Australian Current Acts (1) A reference in
subsection (2), (3), (5) or (7) to an authorised officer is a reference to an
officer of the Trust appointed under subsection (11) to be an authorised
officer for the purposes of the subsection in which the term is used.
(2) Subject to
section 18D, an authorised officer who has reason to believe that a person has
committed an offence against a regulation made under section 18A may, within
21 days after the alleged offence is believed to have been committed, serve an
infringement notice on the alleged offender.
(3) An infringement
notice shall —
(a) be
in the prescribed form; and
(b) in
every case —
(i)
contain a description of the alleged offence; and
(ii)
state that, if the alleged offender does not wish to be
prosecuted for the alleged offence in a court, the amount of money specified
in the infringement notice as being the modified penalty for the alleged
offence may be paid to an authorised officer within a period of 28 days after
the giving of the infringement notice; and
(iii)
inform the alleged offender what persons are authorised
officers for the purposes of receiving payment of modified penalties.
(4) The amount
specified in an infringement notice as being the modified penalty for the
alleged offence referred to in the infringement notice shall be the amount
that was the prescribed modified penalty at the time when that offence is
believed to have been committed.
(5) An authorised
officer may, in a particular case, extend the period of 28 days within which
the modified penalty may be paid, and that extension may be allowed whether or
not the period of 28 days has elapsed.
(6) When the modified
penalty specified in an infringement notice has been paid within the period of
28 days or that period as extended and the infringement notice has not been
withdrawn, the bringing of proceedings and the imposition of penalties are
prevented to the same extent as they would have been if the alleged offender
had previously been convicted by a court of, and punished for, the alleged
offence.
(7) An authorised
officer may, whether or not the modified penalty has been paid, withdraw an
infringement notice by sending to the alleged offender a notice in the
prescribed form stating that the infringement notice has been withdrawn.
(8) When an
infringement notice is withdrawn after the modified penalty has been paid, the
amount shall be refunded.
(9) An amount paid as
a modified penalty shall, subject to subsection (8), be dealt with as if it
were a fine imposed by a court as a penalty for an offence.
(10) Payment of a
modified penalty is not to be regarded as an admission for the purposes of any
proceedings, whether civil or criminal.
(11) The Trust may in
writing appoint persons, or the members of classes of persons, to be
authorised officers for the purposes of subsection (2), (3), (5) or (7) or for
the purposes of 2 or more of those subsections, but a person who is authorised
to serve infringement notices under subsection (2) is not eligible to be an
authorised officer for the purposes of any of the other subsections.
(12) The Trust shall
issue to each authorised officer who is authorised to serve infringement
notices under subsection (2) a certificate stating that the authorised officer
is so authorised, and each such authorised officer shall produce the
certificate whenever required to do so by a person to whom the authorised
officer has given or is about to give an infringement notice.
[Section 18C inserted: No. 4 of 1997 s. 7;
amended: No. 84 of 2004 s. 80.]