49Recovery of overpayments

49 Recovery of overpayments

(1) Where an amount of a grant under this Act has been paid to a sole applicant in consequence of a false or misleading statement or representation made by the applicant or a failure or omission by the applicant to comply with a provision of this Act, an amount equal to the amount of the grant is a debt due to the Commonwealth by the applicant and may be recovered by the Commonwealth from the applicant in a court of competent jurisdiction. (2) Where an amount of a grant under this Act has been paid to joint applicants in consequence of a false or misleading statement or representation made by any of the applicants or a failure or omission by any of the applicants to comply with a provision of this Act, an amount equal to the amount of the grant is a debt due to the Commonwealth by the applicants jointly and severally and may be recovered from those persons in a court of competent jurisdiction. (3) The Commonwealth is not, by virtue of subsection (2), entitled to recover from the persons referred to in that subsection amounts that, in the aggregate, exceed the total amount of the debt due to the Commonwealth.