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This Act may be cited as the Absconding Debtors Act 1978.
This Act shall come into operation on a date to be fixed by the
Administrator by notice in the Gazette.
In this Act:
applicant means a person who applies for an order or warrant under this Act.
Court means the Local Court or the Supreme Court.
debt means a liquidated debt, whether pursuant to a judgment or otherwise, that is due and payable in the Territory.
debtor includes a person who an applicant alleges owes a debt to the applicant.
Local Court's jurisdictional limit means the jurisdictional limit of the Local Court's civil jurisdiction, as defined in section 12 of the Local Court Act 2015.
property includes realty and personalty or an interest, whether legal or equitable, in property.
wages means:
any sum due under:
a contract of employment; or
(ii) an award or industrial agreement regulating conditions of employment; and
(b) any sum due for long service leave, annual holidays or sick leave.
(2) A reference in this Act to the transfer of property includes a reference to the sale, or the assignment otherwise than for valuable consideration, of that property.
(3) For this Act, a person is satisfied as to all material matters in relation to a debtor if the person is satisfied that there are reasonable grounds for believing that:
the debtor owes a debt to the applicant; and
the debtor is about to leave the Territory; and
(c) failure to arrest the debtor would defeat, endanger or materially prejudice an applicant's prospects of recovering a debt; and
the debt:
is for wages due by the debtor to the applicant; or
is for an amount not less than the prescribed amount.
(1) Subject to this Act, a person may, at any time, apply to a Court for a warrant to issue for the arrest of a debtor for the purpose of preventing that debtor from leaving the Territory.
An application under subsection (1) must be:
in the prescribed form; and
(b) supported by an affidavit as to all material matters in relation to which the Court is, under section 6(2), required to be satisfied.
(1) A Court may issue a warrant for which an application has been made under section 5 in accordance with this Part.
(2) A Court must not issue a warrant under subsection (1) unless it is satisfied, after reasonable inquiry, as to all material matters.
A warrant issued under subsection (1) must:
be in the prescribed form; and
specify:
the amount of the alleged debt; and
the costs, if any, which are claimed by the applicant; and
the name of the person to whom it is addressed; and
bear such other endorsements as are prescribed.
A Court that issues a warrant under this Part must within 24 hours after the warrant has been issued:
(a) if the debt claimed is not more than the Local Court's jurisdictional limit, transmit:
the application for the warrant; and
any affidavit lodged with the application; and
a copy of the warrant;
to a registrar of the Local Court; or
if the debt claimed is more than that limit, transmit:
the application for the warrant; and
any affidavit lodged with the application; and
a copy of the warrant;
to an Associate Judge.
A warrant issued under Part 2 may be executed in the Territory by:
the person to whom the warrant is addressed; or
a police officer;
within one month from the date of issue of the warrant.
Where, having regard respectively to the location of the place where a warrant under Part 2 is purported to have been issued and the place where it is to be executed, it is not practicable for a police officer to obtain the warrant or a copy of it, the officer may, if he or she believes on reasonable grounds that the warrant is in existence, execute it even though the officer does not have it or a copy of it in his or her possession.
Where a police officer executes, pursuant to subsection (1), a warrant issued under Part 2, the officer must comply with the requirements of sections 9 and 10(a) in respect of the warrant as soon as practicable after receiving it or a copy of it.
Where a police officer has executed, pursuant to subsection (1), a warrant purported to be issued under Part 2, and after that execution it is found that the warrant is not in existence, the person for the time being having custody of the person arrested in the purported execution of that warrant must, as soon as practicable after he or she is satisfied that that warrant is not in existence, discharge the arrested person from custody.
Subject to section 8A(2), a person who executes a warrant issued under Part 2 must endorse the warrant with the time and place of its execution.
A person who executes a warrant issued under Part 2 must serve the debtor with a copy of the warrant:
(a) where the person serving the warrant is a police officer – subject to section 8A(2), as soon as is practicable after the execution of the warrant; and
otherwise – on the execution of the warrant.
(1) A person who executes a warrant issued under Part 2 must immediately take the debtor to the nearest police station.
(2) The police officer in charge of a police station to whom a debtor is brought in pursuance of subsection (1) must:
hold the debtor in custody; and
(b) within 24 hours of, or as soon as practicable after, receiving the debtor into custody, bring the debtor:
(i) if the debt claimed is not more than the Local Court's jurisdictional limit – before a Court; or
(ii) if the debt claimed is more than that limit – before the Supreme Court.
(3) An endorsement in accordance with section 9 is sufficient authority for a General Manager (as defined in section 10 of the Correctional Services Act 2014, to receive the debtor named in the warrant into custody.
The police officer in charge of a police station referred to in section 11(1) or the officer referred to in section 11(3) must release a debtor held in custody if:
the debtor:
(i) tenders to the applicant the amount of money specified in the warrant as the debt and costs; or
(ii) deposits with that member or the officer for payment into court that amount of money to abide the determination of the claim; or
the applicant consents in writing to the release; or
a Court orders that the debtor be released from custody.