Commonwealth Consolidated Acts

LIFE INSURANCE ACT 1995 - SECT 230F

             (1)  A life company or registered NOHC is guilty of an offence if:

                     (a)  it does, or fails to do, an act; and

                     (b)  doing, or failing to do, the act results in a contravention of a direction given to it under section 230B.

Penalty:  50 penalty units.

Note:          If a body corporate is convicted of an offence against this subsection, subsection 4B(3) of the Crimes Act 1914 allows a court to impose a fine of up to 5 times the penalty stated above.

          (1A)  Subsection (1) is an offence of strict liability.

Note 1:       Chapter 2 of the Criminal Code sets out the general principles of criminal responsibility.

Note 2:       For strict liability , see section 6.1 of the Criminal Code .

             (2)  If a life company or registered NOHC does or fails to do an act in circumstances that give rise to the company or NOHC committing an offence against subsection (1), the company or NOHC is guilty of an offence against that subsection in respect of:

                     (a)  the first day on which the offence is committed; and

                     (b)  each subsequent day (if any) on which the circumstances that gave rise to the company or NOHC committing the offence continue (including the day of conviction for any such offence or any later day).

Note:          This subsection is not intended to imply that section 4K of the Crimes Act 1914 does not apply to offences against this Act or the regulations.

             (3)  An officer of a life company or registered NOHC is guilty of an offence if:

                     (a)  the officer fails to take reasonable steps to ensure that the company or NOHC complies with a direction given to it under section 230B; and

                     (b)  the officer's duties include ensuring that the company or NOHC complies with the direction, or with a class of directions that includes the direction.

Penalty:  50 penalty units.

Note:          If a body corporate is convicted of an offence against this subsection, subsection 4B(3) of the Crimes Act 1914 allows a court to impose a fine of up to 5 times the penalty stated above.

          (3A)  Subsection (3) is an offence of strict liability.

Note 1:       Chapter 2 of the Criminal Code sets out the general principles of criminal responsibility.

Note 2:       For strict liability , see section 6.1 of the Criminal Code .

             (4)  If an officer of a life company or registered NOHC fails to take reasonable steps to ensure that the company or NOHC complies with a direction given to it under section 230B in circumstances that give rise to the officer committing an offence against subsection (3), the officer is guilty of an offence against that subsection in respect of:

                     (a)  the first day on which the offence is committed; and

                     (b)  each subsequent day (if any) on which the circumstances that gave rise to the officer committing the offence continue (including the day of conviction for any such offence or any later day).

Note:          This subsection is not intended to imply that section 4K of the Crimes Act 1914 does not apply to offences against this Act or the regulations.

             (5)  In this section, officer has the meaning given by section 9 of the Corporations Act 2001 .

Note:          Officer would include a member of the Compliance Committee of an eligible foreign life insurance company.