Australian Capital Territory Current Acts Australian Capital Territory Current Acts(1) A person commits an offence if the person—
(a) intentionally or recklessly causes a fire; and
(b) is reckless about the spread of the fire to vegetation on property belonging to someone else.
Maximum penalty: 1 500 penalty units, imprisonment for 15 years or both.
Note The fault element of recklessness can be satisfied by proof of intention, knowledge or recklessness (see s 20 (4)).
(2) In this section:
"causes" a fire—a person causes a fire if the person does any of the following:
(a) lights a fire;
(b) maintains a fire;
(c) fails to contain or extinguish a fire that was lit by the person if it is not beyond the person's capacity to contain or extinguish it.
"spread", of a fire, means spread of the fire beyond the capacity of the person who caused the fire to contain or extinguish it.