Western Australian Consolidated Acts Western Australian Consolidated Acts (1) When a vehicle has
been impounded under Subdivision 2 or on an impounding order and the
impounding period ends, the Commissioner may refuse to release the vehicle
until the Commissioner has been paid an amount specified by the Commissioner
as being equivalent to all expenses reasonably incurred by the Commissioner in
impounding the vehicle.
(2A) If the vehicle
impounded under Subdivision 2 is a substitute vehicle impounded under
section 79BCB, the expenses referred to in subsection (1) are both
the expenses incurred in impounding the substitute vehicle and any unpaid
expenses incurred in impounding the initially impounded vehicle (as defined in
section 79BCA(1)).
(2)
Subsection (1) applies even if the person seeking the release of the
vehicle is not the person suspected of having committed, or found to have
committed, the offence for which the vehicle was impounded.
(3) The Commissioner
may release the vehicle without requiring payment of the amount described in
subsection (1) if the Commissioner considers it appropriate in the
circumstances to do so.
(4) If payment of the
amount described in subsection (1) is made for the release of the
vehicle, that payment extinguishes any liability under section 79E or
80H, as the case requires, to pay the Commissioner for expenses of the
impounding even though the payment may not have been made by the person who
was liable under that section.
(5) In the case of a
vehicle impounded under Subdivision 2 the Commissioner has to refund, to
the person who made the payment, an amount described in subsection (1)
that was paid to the Commissioner for the release of the vehicle
if —
(a) no
charge of committing the offence for which the vehicle was impounded is laid
during the period of one year after the day on which the offence is
suspected to have been committed; or
(b)
during the period described in paragraph (a) a person is charged with
committing the offence but the person is not convicted of that offence within
that period or within an extension of that period ordered by the court.
[Section 80IB inserted by No. 4 of 2007
s. 9; amended by No. 24 of 2008 s. 23 and 25; No. 23 of 2009
s. 22; No. 20 of 2010 s. 12.]