Western Australian Consolidated Acts Western Australian Consolidated Acts (1) If a superior
court fines an offender for an offence it may order that if the offender does
not pay the fine before a date set by the court the offender is to be
imprisoned until the offender’s liability to pay the fine is
discharged —
(a) by
payment of the whole of the fine; or
(b) by
the offender serving the whole of the period of imprisonment determined under
subsection (3), or a shorter period set by the court; or
(c) by a
combination of payment of part of the fine and the offender serving part of
that period of imprisonment.
(2) If a court makes
an order under subsection (1) and the offender contravenes the order, the
court may issue a warrant of commitment in the prescribed form in respect of
the offender specifying the period of imprisonment (in days) determined under
subsection (3) or set by the court (as the case may be) and, if
necessary, reduced under subsection (5).
(3) Unless the court
sets a shorter period of imprisonment under subsection (1)(b), the period
of imprisonment (in days) for the purposes of that subsection is the shorter
of —
(a) the
period determined by dividing the amount of the fine by the amount prescribed
and rounding the result down to the nearest whole number of days; and
(b) the
term of imprisonment (if any) provided by the statutory penalty for the
offence concerned,
and in any event is
not less than one day.
[(4) deleted]
(5) If part of a fine
is paid after an order is made under subsection (1), the period of
imprisonment (in days) determined under subsection (3) or set by the
court (as the case may be) is to be reduced by a period to be determined as
follows:
(rounded up to the
nearest whole number).
(6) If part of a fine
is paid after a warrant of commitment is issued, the warrant has effect as if
the period of imprisonment specified in it were reduced in accordance with
subsection (5).
(7) For every day or
part of a day that an offender serves in custody under an order made under
this section, the fine is to be reduced by an amount to be determined as
follows:
(rounded down to the
nearest whole number).
where period of
imprisonment is the period (in days) determined under subsection (3) or
set by the court (as the case may be).
(8) Any period of
imprisonment that an offender has to serve as a result of an order under
subsection (1) is to be served cumulatively on any term of imprisonment
that the offender is serving or has to serve unless the court orders
otherwise.
(9) This section does
not apply where a superior court imposes a fine under the Juries Act 1957
.
[Section 59 amended in Gazette
3 Mar 2000 p. 1015; amended by No. 3 of 2008 s. 18.]