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CORPORATIONS ACT 2001 No. 50, 2001 - SECT 1314

Continuing offences

(1) Where:

(a)
by or under a provision, an act is or was required to be done within a particular period or before a particular time; and

(b)
failure to do the act within that period or before that time constitutes an offence; and

(c)
the act is not done within that period or before that time;

then:

(d)
the obligation to do the act continues, after that period has ended or that time has passed, and whether or not a person is or has been convicted of a primary substantive offence in relation to failure to do the act, until the act is done; and

(e)
subsections (3) and (4) apply.

(2) Where:

(a)
by or under a provision, an act is or was required to be done but neither a period nor a time for the doing of the Act is or was specified; and

(b)
failure to do the act constitutes an offence; and

(c)
a person is or has been convicted of a primary substantive offence in relation to failure to do the act;

then:

(d)
the obligation to do the act continues, despite the conviction, until the act is done; and

(e)
subsections (3) and (4) apply.

(3) Where:

(a)
at a particular time, a person is or was first convicted of a substantive offence, or is or was convicted of a second or subsequent substantive offence, in relation to failure to do the act; and

(b)
the failure to do the act continued after that time;

then:

(c)
the person is, in relation to failure to do the act, guilty of a further offence in respect of so much of the period throughout which the failure to do the act continued or elapsed after that time and before the relevant day in relation to the further offence; and

(d)
for the purposes of this Act and of the Crimes Act 1914 , the further offence is taken to be constituted by failure to do the act during so much of that period as so elapsed.

(4) Where:

(a)
the provision referred to in paragraph (1)(a) or (2)(a), as the case may be, provides or provided that:

(i)
an officer of a body corporate; or
(ii)
a person;
who is or was in default, or is or was involved in a contravention constituted by the failure to do the act, is or was guilty of an offence or contravenes or contravened a provision of this Act; and

(b)
throughout a particular period (in this subsection called the relevant period ):

(i)
the failure to do the act continued; and
(ii)
a person (in this subsection called the derivative offender ) is or was in any way, by act or omission, directly or indirectly, knowingly concerned in or party to the failure to do the act; and
(iii)
in a case where subparagraph (a)(i) applies—the derivative offender is or was an officer of the body;
then:

(c)
in a case where either or both of the following events occurs or occur:

(i)
a person is or was convicted, before or during the relevant period, of a primary substantive offence in relation to failure to do the act;
(ii)
the derivative offender is or was convicted, before or during the relevant period, of a primary derivative offence in relation to failure to do the act;
the derivative offender is, in relation to failure to do the act, guilty of an offence (in this paragraph called the relevant offence ) in respect of so much (if any) of the relevant period as elapsed:

(iii)
after the conviction referred to in subparagraph (i) or(ii), or after the earlier of the convictions referred to in subparagraphs (i) and (ii), as the case may be; and
(iv)
before the relevant day in relation to the relevant offence; and
(d)
in a case where, at a particular time during the relevant period, the derivative offender is or was first convicted of a secondary derivative offence, or is or was convicted of a second or subsequent secondary derivative offence, in relation to failure to do the act—the derivative offender is, in relation to failure to do the act, guilty of a further offence in respect of so much of the relevant period as elapsed after that time and before the relevant day in relation to the further offence.

(5) Where a person is guilty, by virtue of subsection (3) or (4), of an offence in respect of the whole or a part of a particular period, the penalty applicable to the offence is a fine of the amount obtained by multiplying half a penalty unit by the number of days in that period, or in that part of that period, as the case may be. (6) In this section:

"act" includes thing.

"primary derivative offence", in relation to failure to do an act, means an offence (other than an offence of which a person is guilty by virtue of this section) of which a person is or was guilty by virtue of being an officer of a corporation, or a person, who is or was in any way, by act or omission, directly or indirectly, knowingly concerned in or party to failure to do the act.

"primary substantive offence", in relation to a failure to do an act, means an offence (other than an offence of which a person is or was guilty by virtue of this section) constituted by failure to do the act, or by failure to do the act within a particular period or before a particular time.

"provision" means a section, or a subsection of a section, of this Act.

"relevant day", in relation to an offence of which a person is guilty by virtue of this section, means:

(a)
in a case where the information relating to the offence specifies a day in relation to the offence for the purposes of this section, being a day not later than the day on which the information is laid—the day the information so specifies; or

(b)
in any other case—the day on which the information relating to the offence is laid.

"required" includes directed.

"secondary derivative offence", in relation to failure to do an act, means an offence or further offence of which a person is, in relation to failure to do the act, guilty by virtue of paragraph (4)(c) or (d).

"substantive offence", in relation to failure to do an act, means:

(a)
a primary substantive offence in relation to failure to do the act; or

(b)
a further offence of which a person is, in relation to failure to do the act, guilty by virtue of subsection (3).

(7) For the purposes of subsection (4), a provision of this Act is, whether or not it expressly provides as mentioned in paragraph (4)(a), taken to provide that a person who is or was involved in a contravention constituted by a failure to do an act required by the provision contravenes or contravened that provision.


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