Commonwealth Numbered Acts

CUSTOMS LEGISLATION AMENDMENT ACT 1992 No. 209 of 1992 - SECT 23

23. Section 197 of the Principal Act is repealed and the following section is
substituted: Power to stop and search vehicles

"197.(1) A Customs officer may request the driver of:

   (a)  any carriage in a Customs place; or

   (b)  any carriage carrying goods that are subject to Customs control within
        the meaning of section 30; or

   (c)  any carriage that a Customs officer reasonably believes to be carrying
        goods that are subject to Customs control within the meaning of
        section 30; either to permit the carriage to be searched or both to
        stop the carriage and to permit it to be searched.

"(2) A driver of whom a request is made under subsection (1) must not, without
reasonable excuse, refuse or fail to comply with the request. Penalty: $1,000.

"(3) A Customs officer may request the driver of a carriage to permit the
carriage to be searched, or both to stop the carriage and permit it to be
searched, otherwise than in the circumstances referred to in subsection (1),
only if the officer has reasonable grounds to suspect:

   (a)  that the carriage has been used, or is being used, in the commission
        of an offence against this Act; and

   (b)  that the search of the carriage is necessary to prevent a thing in the
        carriage from being concealed, lost or destroyed; and

   (c)  that the power to search the carriage needs to exercised without a
        warrant because the circumstances of the case are serious and urgent.

"(4) In this section, 'Customs place' means:

   (a)  a port, airport or wharf that is appointed, and the limits of which
        are fixed, under section 15; or

   (b)  a boarding station that is appointed under section 15; or

   (c)  a place that is appointed under paragraph 17(b); or

   (d)  a place described in a licence for warehousing goods that is granted
        under subsection 79(1).".