CRIMINAL LAW CONSOLIDATION (IDENTITY THEFT) AMENDMENT BILL 2003

Part 2—Amendment of Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1935

After Part 5 insert:

Part 5A—Identity theft

144A—Interpretation

In this Part—

criminal purpose means the purpose of committing, or facilitating the commission of, an offence;

digital signature means encrypted electronic or computer data intended for the exclusive use of a particular person as a means of identifying himself or herself as the sender of an electronic communication;

electronic communication means a communication transmitted in the form of electronic or computer data;

false identity—a person assumes a false identity if the person pretends to be, or passes himself or herself off as, some other person;

The other person may be—

(a) living or dead;

(b) real or fictional;

personal identification information—a person's personal identification information is information used to identify the person, and includes—

(a) in the case of a natural person—

(i) information about the person such as his or her name, address, date or place of birth, marital status, relatives and so on;

(ii) the person's driver's licence or driver's licence number;

(iii) the person's passport or passport number;

(iv) biometric data relating to the person;

(v) the person's voice print;

(vi) the person's credit or debit card, its number, and data encrypted on it;

(vii) any means commonly used by the person to identify himself or herself (including a digital signature);

(viii) a series of numbers or letters (or a combination of both) intended for use as a means of personal identification;

(b) in the case of a body corporate—

(i) its name;

(ii) its ABN;

(iii) the number of any bank account established in the body corporate's name or of any credit card issued to the body corporate;

prohibited material means anything (including personal identification information) that enables a person to assume a false identity or to exercise a right of ownership that belongs to someone else to funds, credit, information or any other financial or non-financial benefit;

serious criminal offence means—

(a) an indictable offence; or

(b) an offence prescribed by regulation for the purposes of this definition;

voice print means computer data recording the unique characteristics of a person's voice.

144B—False identity etc

(1) A person who—

(a) assumes a false identity; or

(b) falsely pretends—

(i) to have particular qualifications; or

(ii) to have, or to be entitled to act in, a particular capacity,

makes a false pretence to which this section applies.

(2) A person who assumes a false identity makes a false pretence to which this section applies even though the person acts with the consent of the person whose identity is falsely assumed.

(3) A person who makes a false pretence to which this section applies intending, by doing so, to commit, or facilitate the commission of, a serious criminal offence is guilty of an offence and liable to the penalty appropriate to an attempt to commit the serious criminal offence.

144C—Misuse of personal identification information

(1) A person who makes use of another person's personal identification information intending, by doing so, to commit, or facilitate the commission of, a serious criminal offence, is guilty of an offence and liable to the penalty appropriate to an attempt to commit the serious criminal offence.

(2) This section applies irrespective of whether the person whose personal identification information is used—

(a) is living or dead; or

(b) consents to the use of the personal identification information.

144D—Prohibited material

(1) A person who—

(a) produces prohibited material; or

(b) has possession of prohibited material,

intending to use the material, or to enable another person to use the material, for a criminal purpose is guilty of an offence.

Maximum penalty: Imprisonment for 3 years.

(2) A person who sells or gives prohibited material to another person, knowing that the other person is likely to use the material for a criminal purpose is guilty of an offence.

Maximum penalty: Imprisonment for 3 years.

(3) A person who is in possession of equipment for making prohibited material intending to use it to commit an offence against this section is guilty of an offence.

Maximum penalty: Imprisonment for 3 years.

144E—Attempt offence excluded

A person cannot be convicted of an attempt to commit an offence against this Part.

144F—Application of Part

This Part does not apply—

(a) to misrepresentation by a person under the age of 18 years for the purpose of—

(i) obtaining alcohol, tobacco or any other product not lawfully available to persons under the age of 18; or

(ii) gaining entry to premises to which access is not ordinarily allowed to persons under the age of 18; or

(b) to any thing done by a person under that age to facilitate such a misrepresentation.

Schedule 1—Related amendment

Part 1—Preliminary

1—Amendment provisions

In this Schedule, a provision under a heading referring to the amendment of a specified Act amends the Act so specified.

Part 2—Amendment of Criminal Law (Sentencing) Act 1988

2—Insertion of section 54

After section 53 insert:

54—Certificate for victims of identity theft

(1) A court that finds a person guilty of an offence involving—

(a) the assumption of another person's identity; or

(b) the use of another person's personal identification information,

may, on application by a victim of the offence, issue a certificate under subsection (2).

(2) The certificate is to give details of—

(a) the offence; and

(b) the name of the victim; and

(3) In this section—

personal identification information has the same meaning as in Part 5A of the Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1935;

victim means a person whose identity has been assumed, or personal identification information has been used, without the person's consent, in connection with the commission of the offence.

South Australian Bills

CRIMINAL LAW CONSOLIDATION (IDENTITY THEFT) AMENDMENT BILL 2003