Urban Forest Act 2023

An executive officer of a corporation commits an offence if—

the corporation commits a relevant offence; and

the officer was reckless about whether the relevant offence would be committed; and

the officer was in a position to influence the conduct of the corporation in relation to the commission of the relevant offence; and

the officer failed to take reasonable steps to prevent the commission of the relevant offence.

Maximum penalty: The maximum penalty that may be imposed for the commission of the relevant offence by an individual.

This section applies whether or not the corporation is prosecuted for, or convicted of, the relevant offence.

In deciding whether the executive officer took (or failed to take) reasonable steps to prevent the commission of the relevant offence, a court must consider the following:

any action the officer took directed towards ensuring the following (to the extent that the action is relevant to the act or omission):

that the corporation arranges regular professional assessments of the corporation’s compliance with the provision to which the relevant offence relates;

that the corporation implements any appropriate recommendation arising from such an assessment;

that the corporation’s employees, agents and contractors have a reasonable knowledge and understanding of the requirement to comply with the provision to which the relevant offence relates;

any action the officer took when the officer became aware that the relevant offence was, or might be, about to be committed.

Subsection (3) does not limit the matters the court may consider.

This section does not apply if the corporation would have a defence to a prosecution for the relevant offence.

Note The defendant has an evidential burden in relation to the matters mentioned in s (5) (see Criminal Code, s 58).

In this section:

executive officer, of a corporation, means a person (however described) who is concerned with, or takes part in, the corporation’s management, whether or not the person is a director of the corporation.

relevant offence means an offence against any of the following:

section 16 (1), (2), (3) or (4) (Offence—damaging protected trees);

section 17 (1), (2) or (3) (Offence—doing prohibited groundwork).