Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979

An authorised person may serve a penalty notice on a person if it appears to the authorised person that the person has committed an offence under this Act or the regulations, being an offence prescribed by the regulations.

A penalty notice is a notice to the effect that, if the person served does not wish to have the matter determined by a court, the person may pay, within the time and to the person specified in the notice, the amount of penalty prescribed by the regulations for the offence if dealt with under this section.

A penalty notice—

may be served personally or by post, or

if it relates to an offence involving the use of a vehicle, may be addressed to the owner (without naming the owner or stating the owner’s address) and may be served by leaving it on or attaching it to the vehicle.

If the amount of penalty prescribed for an alleged offence is paid under this section, no person is liable to any further proceedings for the alleged offence.

Payment under this section is not regarded as an admission of liability for the purpose of, and does not in any way affect or prejudice, any civil claim, action or proceeding arising out of the same occurrence.

The regulations may—

prescribe an offence for the purposes of this section by specifying the offence or by referring to the provision creating the offence, and

prescribe the amount of penalty payable for the offence if dealt with under this section, and

prescribe different amounts of penalties for different offences or classes of offences, and

prescribe different amounts of penalties for the same offence, including, in the case of a continuing offence, different amounts of penalties for different periods during which the offence continues.

The amount of a penalty prescribed under this section for an offence must not exceed the maximum amount of penalty which could be imposed for the offence by a court.

This section does not limit the operation of any other provision of, or made under, this or any other Act relating to proceedings which may be taken in respect of offences.

In this section, authorised person means a person who is declared by the regulations to be an authorised person for the purposes of this section or who belongs to a class of persons so declared.