Tow Truck Act 2023

For an application made under section 92, the magistrate may issue the warrant (the original warrant) only if satisfied—

it was necessary to make the application under section 92; and

the way the application was made under section 92 was appropriate.

After the magistrate issues the original warrant—

if there is a reasonably practicable way of immediately giving a copy of the warrant to the authorised officer, including, for example, by sending a copy by fax or email, the magistrate must immediately give a copy of the warrant to the officer; or

otherwise—

the magistrate must tell the authorised officer the information required to be stated in the warrant under section 91(2); and

the authorised officer must complete a form of warrant, including by writing on it the information mentioned in subparagraph (i).

The copy of the warrant mentioned in subsection (2)(a), or the form of warrant completed under subsection (2)(b) (in either case the duplicate warrant), is a duplicate of, and as effectual as, the original warrant.

The authorised officer must, at the first reasonable opportunity, send to the magistrate—

the written application complying with section 90(2) and (3); and

if the authorised officer completed a form of warrant under subsection (2)(b), the completed form of warrant.

Subsection (6) applies if—

an issue arises in a proceeding about whether an exercise of a power was authorised by a warrant issued under this section; and

the original warrant is not produced in evidence.

Despite subsection (3), the onus of proof is on the person relying on the lawfulness of the exercise of the power to prove a warrant authorised the exercise of the power.

This section does not limit section 90.