Criminal Procedure Act 1921

Subject to any provision of an Act to the contrary, if a person is to be prosecuted for a summary offence, the proceedings must be commenced within the following time limits:

in the case of an expiable offence—

if an expiation notice was given to the person—the proceedings must be commenced within 6 months of the expiry of the expiation period specified in the notice;

if an expiation notice was not given to the person—the proceedings must be commenced within 6 months of the date on which the offence is alleged to have been committed;

in the case of an offence that is not expiable—the proceedings must be commenced within 2 years of the date on which the offence is alleged to have been committed.

For the purposes of subsection (1), an expiation notice is to be taken into account despite its subsequent withdrawal except if the notice of withdrawal specifies that it is withdrawn because—

the issuing authority has received a nomination, statutory declaration or other document sent to the authority by the alleged offender in accordance with a notice required by law to accompany the expiation notice or expiation reminder notice; or

it has become apparent that the alleged offender did not receive the notice until after the expiation period, or has never received it, as a result of error on the part of the authority or failure of the postal system or failure in the transmission of an email, (in which case the withdrawn expiation notice is to be disregarded).