New South Wales Consolidated Acts

LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACT 1993 - SECT 637

637 Waste or misuse of water

(1) A person who wilfully or negligently wastes or misuses water from a public water supply, or causes any such water to be wasted, is guilty of an offence.

: Maximum penalty--20 penalty units.

(2) If an offence against this section is committed, the occupier of the premises on which the offence was committed is guilty of the offence as if the occupier were the actual offender unless the occupier proves that the waste or misuse constituting the offence--

(a) was not reasonably within the occupier's knowledge, and

(b) was caused by the act of the person other than a member of the occupier's household or other than a person employed on the premises by the occupier.

(3) Subsection (2) does not affect the liability of the actual offender, but, if a penalty has been imposed on or recovered from any person in relation to the offence, no further penalty in respect of the offence may be imposed on or recovered from any other person.