Western Australian Current Acts Western Australian Current Acts (1) A person must not
deal with seized or frozen property in any way.
Penalty: $100 000 or the value of the property,
whichever is greater, or imprisonment for 5 years, or both.
(2) Subsection (1)
does not apply to —
(a) a
person acting in accordance with an order under section 45(c), 91(2) or 93(2);
or
(b) in
the case of seized property — a police officer acting under section 33,
or a person acting under the direction of a police officer who is acting in
accordance with this Act; or
(c) in
the case of frozen property — a person acting in accordance with the
freezing notice or freezing order.
(3) It is a defence to
a prosecution for an offence under subsection (1) in relation to seized
property if the accused establishes that he or she did not know, and can not
reasonably be expected to have known, that the property was being retained or
guarded under section 33(2) at the relevant time.
(4) It is a defence to
a prosecution for an offence under subsection (1) in relation to frozen
property if the respondent establishes that he or she did not know, and can
not reasonably be expected to have known, that the freezing notice or freezing
order was in force at the material time.
(5) Subsection (1)
does not prevent a person from being dealt with for a contempt of the court
for a contravention of a freezing order, but the person is not punishable for
both a contempt and an offence under subsection (1) arising from the same
contravention.
[Section 50 amended: No. 84 of 2004 s. 82.]