Crimes Act 1900

This Act is the Crimes Act 1900.

The Parts and sections mentioned in Schedule 2, so far as their provisions can be applied, shall be in force with respect to all offences, whether at Common Law or by Statute, whensoever committed and in whatsoever Court tried.

In this Act, unless the context or subject-matter otherwise indicates or requires—

Aircraft includes any machine that can derive support in the atmosphere from the reactions of the air.

animal sexual abuse has the same meaning as in Part 3, Division 10, Subdivision 13.

Armed, in relation to a weapon, or instrument, or an offensive weapon, or instrument, that is a dangerous weapon, includes bearing or having the immediate physical possession of the weapon, or instrument.

Authorised officer has the same meaning as it has in the Criminal Procedure Act 1986.

Banker includes every director or manager of any banking company, whether incorporated or not, or of any branch thereof, and every person carrying on the business of a banker.

Cattle includes any horse, mare, gelding, colt, foal, filly, ass, mule, bull, cow, ox, steer, heifer, calf, ram, ewe, sheep, lamb, pig, goat, deer, alpaca, llama, vicuna, camel, or dromedary, and every hybrid or cross thereof.

Court and Judge respectively shall be equally taken to mean the Court in which or the Judge before whom the trial or proceeding is had in respect of which either word is used.

Dangerous weapon means—

a firearm, or an imitation firearm, within the meaning of the Firearms Act 1996, or

a prohibited weapon within the meaning of the Weapons Prohibition Act 1998, or

a spear gun.

Document of title to goods includes every bill of lading, India warrant, dock warrant, warehousekeeper’s certificate, warrant, or order for the delivery or transfer of any goods or valuable thing, and every bought and sold note or document used in the ordinary course of business as proof of the possession or control of goods, or purporting to authorise by indorsement or delivery, the possessor of such document to transfer or receive any goods thereby represented or therein mentioned or referred to.

Document of title to land includes every deed, map, paper, or parchment, written or printed, or partly written and partly printed, being or containing evidence of the title, or part of the title, to any real estate or to any interest in or out of real estate.

Dwelling-house includes—

any building or other structure intended for occupation as a dwelling and capable of being so occupied, although it has never been so occupied,

a boat or vehicle in or on which any person resides, and

any building or other structure within the same curtilage as a dwelling-house, and occupied therewith or whose use is ancillary to the occupation of the dwelling-house.

Governor means, except in respect of the exercise of the pardoning power, the Governor with the advice of the Executive Council.

Grievous bodily harm includes—

the destruction (other than in the course of a medical procedure or a termination of a pregnancy in accordance with the Abortion Law Reform Act 2019) of the foetus of a pregnant woman, whether or not the woman suffers any other harm, and

any permanent or serious disfiguring of the person, and

any grievous bodily disease (in which case a reference to the infliction of grievous bodily harm includes a reference to causing a person to contract a grievous bodily disease).

Indictment includes any information presented or filed as provided by law for the prosecution of offences.

Intoxicating substance includes alcohol or a narcotic drug or any other substance that affects a person’s senses or understanding.

Intoxication has the same meaning it has in Part 11A.

Judge—see Court.

Loaded arms means any gun, pistol, or other arms, loaded in the barrel or chamber or magazine with gunpowder or other explosive substance, and with ball, shot, slug, or other destructive material, although the attempt to discharge may fail from want of proper priming, or from any other cause; and every gun, pistol, or other arms, unlawfully presented at any person, shall be deemed to be loaded unless the contrary is shown.

Member of the crew in relation to an aircraft means a person having functions or duties on board the aircraft.

Minor indictable offence means an indictable offence that is not a serious indictable offence.

Money includes all coined money, whether current within New South Wales or not, and all bank notes or instruments ordinarily so called, if current as such, and payable to the bearer.

Night means the period of time commencing at nine of the clock in the evening of each day and concluding at six of the clock in the morning of the next succeeding day.

Offensive weapon or instrument means—

a dangerous weapon, or

any thing that is made or adapted for offensive purposes, or

any thing that, in the circumstances, is used, intended for use or threatened to be used for offensive purposes, whether or not it is ordinarily used for offensive purposes or is capable of causing harm.

Officer, in relation to a body corporate or public company, includes a person who has been appointed, or acts, as an auditor of the body corporate or public company.

Person, Master, and Employer severally include any society, company, or corporation.

Place of Divine worship includes any building or structure ordinarily used for Divine worship.

Property includes every description of real and personal property; money, valuable securities, debts, and legacies; and all deeds and instruments relating to, or evidencing the title or right to any property, or giving a right to recover or receive any money or goods; and includes not only property originally in the possession or under the control of any person, but also any property into or for which the same may have been converted or exchanged, and everything acquired by such conversion or exchange, whether immediately or otherwise.

Property belonging to a vessel includes every portion of its cargo, and property belonging to any of the officers, crew, or passengers thereof.

Public disorder means a riot or other civil disturbance that gives rise to a serious risk to public safety, whether at a single location or resulting from a series of incidents in the same or different locations, and includes a riot or other civil disturbance at the following—

a correctional centre within the meaning of the Crimes (Administration of Sentences) Act 1999,

a detention centre within the meaning of the Children (Detention Centres) Act 1987.

Railway includes a tramway, and also includes all stations, buildings, structures and equipment belonging to or associated with a railway or tramway.

Serious indictable offence means an indictable offence that is punishable by imprisonment for life or for a term of 5 years or more.

Trustee means a trustee on some express trust howsoever created, and includes the heir or personal representative of such trustee, and every other person upon whom the duty of such trust shall have devolved, and also any official manager, assignee, liquidator, or other like officer, acting under any Act relating to joint stock companies or to bankruptcy or insolvency and also an executor or administrator.

Valuable security includes every order or other security whatsoever entitling or evidencing the title of any person to any share or interest in any public stock or fund, whether of any part of the British dominions or of any Foreign State, or in any fund of any body corporate, company, or society, whether within or without the British dominions, or to any deposit in any bank; and every debenture, deed, bond, bill, note, cheque, warrant, order, or security whatsoever for money, or for payment of money, whether current in any part of the British dominions or in any Foreign State, and every document of title to land or goods, as herein defined.

Note.

The Interpretation Act 1987 contains definitions and other provisions that affect the interpretation and application of this Act.

A dwelling-house does not cease to be a dwelling-house by reason only of being temporarily unoccupied.

(Repealed)

In this Act, except in so far as the context or subject-matter otherwise indicates or requires, a reference to an offence mentioned in a specified provision of this Act that has been amended or repealed is, or includes, a reference to an offence mentioned in the provision as in force before the amendment or repeal.

, (6) (Repealed)

A reference in any offence under this Act to causing any poison, intoxicating substance or other destructive or noxious thing to be administered to or taken by any person includes a reference to causing any person to inhale, take or be exposed to the poison, intoxicating substance or thing by its release into the person’s environment.

In any provision of this Act where a reference to a firearm means a firearm within the meaning of the Firearms Act 1996, that reference is taken to include a paintball marker within the meaning of the Paintball Act 2018 and consequently, being authorised under that Act to possess a paintball marker satisfies any requirement in this Act that possession of the paintball marker be authorised under the Firearms Act 1996.

Notes included in this Act do not form part of this Act.

For the purposes of this Act, if an element of an offence is recklessness, that element may also be established by proof of intention or knowledge.

In this Act—

dishonest means dishonest according to the standards of ordinary people and known by the defendant to be dishonest according to the standards of ordinary people.

In a prosecution for an offence, dishonesty is a matter for the trier of fact.

For the purposes of this Act, a person has a mental health impairment if—

the person has a temporary or ongoing disturbance of thought, mood, volition, perception or memory, and

the disturbance would be regarded as significant for clinical diagnostic purposes, and

the disturbance impairs the emotional wellbeing, judgment or behaviour of the person.

A mental health impairment may arise from any of the following disorders but may also arise for other reasons—

an anxiety disorder,

an affective disorder, including clinical depression and bipolar disorder,

a psychotic disorder,

a substance induced mental disorder that is not temporary.

A person does not have a mental health impairment for the purposes of this Act if the person’s impairment is caused solely by—

the temporary effect of ingesting a substance, or

a substance use disorder.

Where by this or any other Act the unlawful receiving of any property, or its possession without lawful cause or excuse, is expressed to be an offence, every person shall be deemed to have such property in his or her possession within the meaning of such Act who—

has any such property in his or her custody, or

knowingly has any such property in the custody of another person, or

knowingly has any such property in a house, building, lodging, apartment, field, or other place, whether belonging to or occupied by himself or herself or not, and whether such property is there had or placed for his or her own use, or the use of another.

Where, by this or any other Act, or by any rule, regulation, ordinance or by-law, duly made under or by virtue of the provisions of any Act, any offence, conduct, or language, in a public place, or open and public place, or place of public resort, is made punishable, or a person guilty thereof is made liable to apprehension, the place shall be deemed public for the purposes of the enactment or taken to be otherwise within the meaning if the same, although a vessel or vehicle only, or a room, or field, or place, ordinarily private, was at the time used for a public purpose, or as a place of common resort, or was open to the public on the payment of money or otherwise.