Dangerous Goods Safety Act 2004

In this section —

A DGO who has reason to believe that a person has committed a prescribed offence against the regulations may, within 60 days after the alleged offence is believed to have been committed, give an infringement notice to the alleged offender.

An infringement notice is to be in the form prescribed by regulations and is to —

contain a description of the alleged offence;

advise that if the alleged offender does not wish to be prosecuted for the alleged offence in a court, the amount of money specified in the notice as being the modified penalty for the offence may be paid to an authorised person within a period of 28 days after the giving of the notice; and

inform the alleged offender as to who are authorised persons for the purposes of receiving payment of modified penalties.

In an infringement notice the amount specified as being the modified penalty for the offence referred to in the notice is to be the amount that was the modified penalty prescribed by regulations at the time the alleged offence is believed to have been committed.

An authorised person may, in a particular case, extend the period of 28 days within which the modified penalty may be paid and the extension may be allowed whether or not the period of 28 days has elapsed.

If the modified penalty specified in an infringement notice has been paid within 28 days or such further time as is allowed and the notice has not been withdrawn, the bringing of proceedings and the imposition of penalties are prevented to the same extent as they would be if the alleged offender had been convicted by a court of, and punished for, the alleged offence.

An authorised person may, whether or not the modified penalty has been paid, withdraw an infringement notice by sending to the alleged offender a notice in the form prescribed by regulations stating that the infringement notice has been withdrawn.

If an infringement notice is withdrawn after the modified penalty has been paid, the amount of the modified penalty is to be refunded.

Payment of a modified penalty is not to be regarded as an admission for the purpose of any proceedings, whether civil or criminal.

The Chief Officer may, in writing, appoint persons or classes of persons to be authorised persons for the purposes of subsections (3), (5) or (7), but a DGO who gives an infringement notice is not eligible to be an authorised officer for the purposes of any of those subsections in relation to that notice.

Regulations made for the purposes of this section must not prescribe an offence for the purposes of this section if the offence is punishable by imprisonment.