18Investigation of licence and renewal applications

18 Investigation of licence and renewal applications

18 Investigation of licence and renewal applications

(1) On receiving an application for a licence or for the renewal of a licence, the Commissioner may carry out all such investigations and inquiries as the Commissioner considers necessary to enable the Commissioner to consider the application properly.

(2) To confirm the identity of an applicant for a licence, the Commissioner may require the applicant to do the following within the period specified by the Commissioner—

(a) attend a Service NSW service centre and allow Service NSW to take a photograph of the applicant,

(b) permit an authorised officer to do one or more of the following—

(i) take the applicant’s fingerprints,

(ii) take the applicant’s palm prints,

(iii) take a photograph of the applicant.

(3) If the applicant does not comply with the Commissioner’s requirement within the specified period, the application is taken to be withdrawn.

(4) Any fingerprint, palm print or photograph obtained in accordance with this section may be used by the Commissioner for any purpose as the Commissioner sees fit.

(5) A person who formerly held a licence, but is not currently a licensee, or who was an applicant for, but was never granted, a licence, may apply to the Commissioner to have the following destroyed—

(a) the person’s fingerprints or palm prints obtained in accordance with a requirement under subsection (2) and any copies of them,

(b) the person’s photograph obtained in accordance with a requirement under subsection (3) and any copies of it.

(6) The Commissioner may grant or refuse the application as the Commissioner sees fit.

(6A) A reference in this section to an applicant or a licensee includes, in the case of an application for a master licence, or in the case of a former licensee, a reference to each close associate of the applicant or former licensee.

(7) In this section, authorised officer means any of the following persons authorised in writing by the Commissioner as an authorised officer for the purposes of this section—