Section 952C — Corporations Act 2001: Offence of failing to give a disclosure document or statement

Strict liability offence (1) A person (the providing entity) commits an offence if: (a) the providing entity is required by a provision of this Part to give another person a disclosure document or statement (the required disclosure document or statement); and (b) the providing entity does not give (within the meaning of section 940C) the other person anything purporting to be the required disclosure document or statement by the time they are required to do so. (2) An offence based on subsection (1) is an offence of strict liability. Note: For strict liability, see section 6.1 of the Criminal Code. Ordinary offence (3) A person (the providing entity) commits an offence if: (a) the providing entity is required by a provision of this Part to give another person a disclosure document or statement (the required disclosure document or statement); and (b) the providing entity does not give (within the meaning of section 940C) the other person anything purporting to be the required disclosure document or statement by the time they are required to do so. Defence for authorised representative (4) In any proceedings against an authorised representative of a financial services licensee for an offence based on subsection (1) or (3), it is a defence if: (a) the licensee had provided the representative with information or instructions about the giving of disclosure documents or statements; and (b) the representative’s failure to give the required disclosure document or statement occurred because the representative was acting in reliance on that information or those instructions; and (c) the representative’s reliance on that information or those instructions was reasonable. Note: A defendant bears an evidential burden in relation to the matters in subsection (4). See subsection 13.3(3) of the Criminal Code.