137Sale of confiscated motor vehicles

1. Subject to section 138, as soon as practicable after a motor vehicle is delivered into a Registrar's custody under section 132, the Registrar must arrange for the sale of the motor vehicle by public auction or in any other manner that the Registrar, subject to any direction by the court, thinks fit.

2. Repealed

3. Subject to subsection (4), the proceeds of the sale must be applied in the following manner and order of priority:

4. if the motor vehicle has been impounded under the Land Transport Act 1998, in paying any impoundment costs:
5. in payment of the costs of the sale (including all costs incurred in seizing the motor vehicle, towing and storing the vehicle, and complying with the provisions of this subpart preliminary to sale):
6. if 1 or more security agreements have been brought to the notice of the Registrar before the proceeds of sale are fully applied, and have been established to the Registrar's satisfaction, in payment to each secured party of the amount to which the secured party would, but for the extinguishment of the security interest concerned, have been entitled under that agreement (and which has not already been recovered):
7. in payment of any sentence or order of reparation payable by the offender:
8. in payment of any levy payable by the offender under section 105B of this Act:
9. in payment of any fine or court costs payable by the offender:
10. in payment of any fees and accident insurance levies prescribed under section 242(2)(b) of the Land Transport Act 1998 that are outstanding in respect of the vehicle:
11. in payment of any road user charges under the Road User Charges Act 2012 that are outstanding in respect of the vehicle:
12. to the offender or, as the case requires, the substitute for the offender.

13. If any proceeds of sale are required to be applied to 2 or more security interests under subsection (3)(c), those proceeds must be applied in the order of priority determined for those security interests by Part 7 or 8 of the Personal Property Securities Act 1999.

14. If the proceeds arise out of the sale of a motor vehicle owned by a substitute for the offender or in which the substitute had an interest, the proceeds must be applied in the manner and order of priority specified in subsection (3), except that the payment described in paragraphs (d) to (f) of that subsection are limited to sums imposed in respect of offences committed by the offender in a motor vehicle that, at the material time, was owned by the substitute or in which the substitute had an interest.

15. A motor vehicle may be sold under this section even though it fails to comply in any respect with section 242 of the Land Transport Act 1998, and the purchaser of that motor vehicle—

16. is, despite that Act or any other enactment, entitled to tow the motor vehicle to any appropriate place; and
17. in so towing the vehicle, is under no criminal or civil liability merely because of the failure of the vehicle to comply with that section; and
18. must comply in all respects with that Act as soon as the motor vehicle has been towed to that place.

19. If the Registrar considers that a motor vehicle is not roadworthy and that it would be uneconomic to render it roadworthy, the Registrar must, before the motor vehicle is sold under this section, apply, under the Land Transport Act 1998, to have the registration of the motor vehicle cancelled as if the Registrar were the person who, under that Act, is entitled to apply for that cancellation.

20. The person to whom a motor vehicle is sold under this section obtains, by virtue of this section, good title to the motor vehicle free of all ownership interests and other proprietary interests held in the motor vehicle before that sale.