New South Wales Consolidated Acts

ROAD TRANSPORT ACT 2013 - SECT 52

52 Seizure of driver licences

(cf DL Act, s 24)

(1) A police officer, or a person authorised in writing by Transport for NSW (an
"authorised person" ), may, with no authority other than this section, seize an Australian driver licence or any article resembling an Australian driver licence if--

(a) the licence or article is produced to the police officer or authorised person by another person who represents it to be the person's driver licence, and

(b) the police officer or authorised person reasonably suspects that the licence or article--

(i) has been obtained in contravention of section 49 or a former corresponding provision, or

(ii) is unlawfully in the possession of the person who produced it.

(2) A person who produces any licence or article as referred to in subsection (1)(a) must, at the request of the police officer or authorised person to whom it was produced (and on being supplied with adequate materials), provide a specimen of the person's signature.

: Maximum penalty--20 penalty units.

(3) The grounds on which a reasonable suspicion, sufficient to authorise a seizure under this section, may be formed include (but are not limited to) any one or more of the following--

(a) a lack of resemblance between the person depicted in a photograph affixed to the Australian driver licence or article, purporting to be a photograph of the holder, and the person who produced the Australian driver licence or article,

(b) a lack of resemblance between a signature inscribed on the Australian driver licence or article, purporting to be the signature of the holder, and a specimen signature provided by the person who produced the Australian driver licence or article,

(c) a refusal by the person, after producing the Australian driver licence or article, to comply with a request under subsection (2).

(4) An Australian driver licence or article seized under this section must be forwarded to Transport for NSW. Transport for NSW may--

(a) return the Australian driver licence to the person who produced it, if it is satisfied that the driver licence was lawfully in the possession of the person who produced it, or

(b) in any other case, deal with it in such manner as it thinks fit.

(5) The holder of a genuine and valid Australian driver licence seized under this section does not commit any offence merely because the holder is not in possession of the licence at any time after the seizure and before the licence is returned.

(6) The authority conferred by this section to seize an Australian driver licence or any article resembling an Australian driver licence does not extend to a mobile phone or other electronic device on which a digital driver licence is displayed. This subsection does not limit any authority to seize a mobile phone or other electronic device conferred by any other law.