Commonwealth Consolidated Acts

RENEWABLE ENERGY (ELECTRICITY) ACT 2000 - SECT 24

  (1)   A person commits an offence if:

  (a)   the person creates a certificate; and

  (b)   the person is not entitled to create the certificate.

Penalty:   1 penalty unit.

  (2)   Subsection   (1) is an offence of strict liability.

Note 1:   Chapter   2 of the Criminal Code sets out the general principles of criminal responsibility and Part   IA of the Crimes Act 1914 contains general principles relating to penalties.

Note 2:   For strict liability, see section   6.1 of the Criminal Code .

  (3)   A person commits an offence if:

  (a)   the person creates a certificate; and

  (b)   the person is not entitled to create the certificate.

Penalty:   5 penalty units.

Note:   Chapter   2 of the Criminal Code sets out the general principles of criminal responsibility and Part   IA of the Crimes Act 1914 contains general principles relating to penalties.

  (4)   To avoid doubt, a penalty may be imposed in respect of each certificate in respect of which a person commits an offence.

Example:   An individual who commits an offence under subsection   (1) by creating 20 certificates that the individual was not entitled to create would be subject to a maximum penalty of 20 penalty units. If the offence were under subsection   (3), the individual would be subject to a maximum penalty of 100 units.

  (5)   In determining whether a person was not entitled to create a certificate, the fact that the certificate has been registered by the Regulator under section   26 is to be disregarded.

Note:   This ensures that a person cannot raise as relevant evidence the fact that a certificate has been registered.