Commonwealth Consolidated Acts

INSURANCE ACT 1973 - SECT 108

             (1)  A general insurer or an authorised NOHC commits 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 104; and

                     (c)  there is no order in force under section 7 determining that this subsection does not apply to the general insurer or authorised NOHC.

Penalty:  50 penalty units.

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

Note 2:       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.

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

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

             (3)  If a general insurer or authorised NOHC does or fails to do an act in circumstances that give rise to the insurer or NOHC committing an offence against subsection (1), the insurer or NOHC (as the case requires) commits 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 insurer 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.

             (4)  An officer of a general insurer or an authorised NOHC commits an offence if:

                     (a)  the officer fails to take reasonable steps to ensure that the insurer or NOHC complies with a direction given to it under section 104; and

                     (b)  the officer's duties include ensuring that the insurer or NOHC complies with the direction or with a class of directions that includes the direction; and

                     (c)  there is no order in force under section 7 determining that subsection (1) does not apply to the general insurer or authorised NOHC.

Penalty:  50 penalty units.

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

             (5)  Subsection (4) is an offence of strict liability.

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

             (6)  If an officer of a general insurer or authorised NOHC fails to take reasonable steps to ensure that the insurer or NOHC complies with a direction given to it under section 104 in circumstances that give rise to the officer committing an offence against subsection (4), the officer commits 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.

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