18Detention of ships

18 Detention of ships

(1) The Authority may detain a ship in an Australian shipping facility if the Authority has reasonable grounds for believing that an offence against this Act has been committed in respect of the ship. (2) The ship must be released immediately if: (a) security is provided in accordance with subsection (3); or (b) all proceedings that have been instituted in respect of the offence have been discontinued; or (c) all such proceedings have been concluded (whether or not any appeal is pending) without any person being convicted of an offence or being found liable to pay an amount of money; or (d) all such proceedings have been concluded, and all penalties and other amounts of money, and all costs and expenses ordered to be paid, in respect of the offence have been paid; or (e) the Authority forms the belief that the offence did not occur, or did not occur as a result of actions in relation to the ship; or (f) the Authority determines for any other reason that the ship should be released. (3) Security referred to in subsection (2) must: (a) be provided in a form acceptable to the Authority; and (b) be an amount that, in the Authority’s opinion, is equivalent to the maximum amount of all penalties, other amounts of money, costs and expenses that could be payable by the master and owner of the ship in respect of the offence. (4) If the ship leaves the shipping facility while it is under detention, then the master and owner each commit an offence.

Penalty: 1,000 penalty units.

(5) An offence against subsection (4) is an offence of strict liability.

Note: For strict liability, see section 6.1 of the Criminal Code.

(6) While a ship is detained under subsection (1), a person does not have the power of seizure provided for by section 123 of the Personal Property Securities Act 2009 in relation to the ship.