Repaying my debt to society
Today I repayed my debt to society. My temporary lack of propriety was noticed by an City of Sydney enforcement officer, and a penalty notice for offence code 9607 was issued to me:
I am now $60 lighter, or to be more accurate, my credit card is $60 heavier.
Certainly taught me a lesson, however, as I haven't been dropping cigarette butts on the ground since!
Me being a somewhat legal-beaver, I of course, had to look up the legislation/regulations governing said penalty notice:
(Note: gets a little gritty with details here on out; discretion is advised.)
Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997 no 156 (NSW) s.145 (1) states:
(1) Offence of littering
A person who deposits litter in or on a public place or an open private place is guilty of an offence.Maximum penalty: 20 penalty units.
My legal-lust only partially sated at this point, I was obliged to continue...
A couple of frustrated minutes later, and I found what I was searching for; in Schedule 1 of the Protection of the Environment Operations (Penalty Notices) Regulation 2004 no 601 (NSW) , in the table pertaining to the PEO Act it states:
Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997 Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Provision of the Act Officer Penalty (individuals) ... ... ... Section 145: Deposit litter, being unlit or extinguished cigarette 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, $60 (excluding litter deposited from vehicle). 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 Section 145: Deposit litter, being lit cigarette (excluding litter 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, $200 deposited from vehicle). 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13
[Column 4: "Penalty (corporations)" omitted, due to it being a) empty, and b) too wide.]
At that point, I realised I caught the officer on a good day (or perhaps, was caught on a good day!) and should probably count myself lucky that it was a Friday.
NSW Government: please spend my $60 wisely.
As a sidenote, the NSW Government's Legislation website is incredibly well done: simple, effective and easy to use; eclipsing by far the efforts of both the Australian Government's ComLaw , and the New Zealand Government's PAL projects. Also, I was pleasantly suprised to find that legislation is, in general, pretty damn easy to read too.
Anywho, that's it from me for now. See you in August NZ folks.
