54Embargo notices

54 Embargo notices

(1)  This section applies if –

(a) an authorised officer is authorised to seize any record, device or other thing under this Part; and

(b) the record, device or other thing cannot, or cannot readily, be physically seized and removed.

(2)  The authorised officer may issue an embargo notice under this section.

(3)  An embargo notice is a notice forbidding the movement, sale, leasing, transfer, over-recording, deletion of information from or other dealing with the record, device or other thing, or any part of it, without the written consent of the authorised officer or the Competent Authority.

(4)  The embargo notice must –

(a) be in the prescribed form or contain the prescribed particulars; and

(b) list each activity that it forbids; and

(c) set out a copy of subsection (8) .

(5)  The authorised officer may issue the embargo notice –

(a) by causing a copy of the notice to be served on the person with responsibility for the vehicle or premises concerned; or

(b) if that person cannot be located or ascertained after all reasonable steps have been taken to do so, by affixing a copy of the notice to the record, device or other thing in a prominent position.

(6)  A person who knows that an embargo notice relates to a record, device or other thing must not –

(a) do anything that is forbidden by the notice; or

(b) instruct another person to do so.

Penalty:  In the case of –

(a) a body corporate, a fine not exceeding 340 penalty units; or

(b) an individual, a fine not exceeding 70 penalty units.

(7)  It is a defence to a charge for an offence against subsection (6) to establish that the person charged –