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339B: Additional penalty for certain offences for commercial gain
or “Extra punishment for people who break certain rules to make money”
You could also call this:

“If a ship's owner or captain breaks certain rules and doesn't pay their fine, the court can take money from the ship or its helper to cover the cost.”

If you are the owner or captain of a ship and you break the rules about pollution in sections 15A, 15B, or 15C, you might have to pay a fine. If you don’t pay the fine on time, the court can order that your ship and its equipment be sold to pay the fine.

If you still don’t pay the full fine, the ship’s agent (the person who looks after the ship’s business) might have to pay what’s left. The agent can then get this money back from you or take it out of any money they owe you.

If the agent pays your fine, it’s treated as if they spent the money on the ship. This is important for some legal reasons.

The District Court can deal with cases about getting this money back, no matter how much money is involved.

These rules apply even if other laws say something different.

If the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) was helping a local authority with the case against you, it’s treated the same as if the local authority did it all themselves.

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Next up: 340: Liability of principal for acts of agents

or “People in charge can get in trouble for things their workers or ships do wrong, but they can defend themselves if they didn't know or tried to stop it.”
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Part 12 Declarations, enforcement, and ancillary powers
Offences

339CAmount of fine or other monetary penalty recoverable by distress and sale of ship or from agent

  1. Where—

  2. the master or owner of a ship is convicted of an offence against section 338 in respect of any contravention of section 15A or section 15B or section 15C; and
    1. any fine or other monetary penalty imposed by a court under section 339 or section 339B in respect of that offence is not paid on time,—
        1. the court may order that the amount of the fine so unpaid be levied by distress and sale of the ship and its equipment.

      1. Without limiting subsection (1), where any master or owner of a ship—

      2. is convicted of an offence against section 338 in respect of any contravention of section 15A or section 15B or section 15C; and
        1. fails to pay the full amount of any fine or other monetary penalty imposed by the court under section 339 or section 339B,—
            1. the agent of the ship shall be civilly liable to pay to the Crown or, if the proceedings in relation to the offence were commenced by or on behalf of a local authority, to that local authority, such amount of that fine or monetary penalty as remains unpaid and the Crown or that local authority may recover that amount from that agent as a debt.

          1. For the purpose of subsection (2), any proceedings in relation to the offence that were commenced by or on behalf of a local authority include any proceedings in which the EPA was assisting the local authority (see section 343F(b)).

          2. Every agent of a ship who, under this section, pays the whole or part of any fine or other monetary penalty imposed on the master or owner of the ship shall be entitled to recover the amount so paid from that master or owner as a debt or deduct that amount out of or from any money which is or becomes payable by that agent to that master or owner; and any amount so paid by the agent shall, for the purposes of section 4(1)(p) of the Admiralty Act 1973, be deemed to be a disbursement made on account of the ship.

          3. The District Court has jurisdiction to hear and determine proceedings for the recovery, in accordance with this section, of any money from any agent or master or owner of a ship whatever the amount of money involved.

          4. This section shall apply notwithstanding any enactment or rule of law.

          Notes
          • Section 339C: inserted, on , by section 21 of the Resource Management Amendment Act 1994 (1994 No 105).
          • Section 339C(2): amended, on , by section 413 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2011 (2011 No 81).
          • Section 339C(2A): inserted, on , by section 93 of the Resource Management Amendment Act 2020 (2020 No 30).
          • Section 339C(4): amended, on , by section 261 of the District Court Act 2016 (2016 No 49).