337Unclaimed money in trust account

1. This section applies to—

2. money that is held in a regulated trust account by a lawyer or incorporated law firm:
3. money that—
   1. has been paid, under section 164(2), to a Standards Committee or the New Zealand Law Society or the New Zealand Society of Conveyancers; and
   2. is still held by the committee or society to which it was so paid.

4. Where any money to which this section applies is held on behalf of a person who cannot be found and has no known agent with the authority to receive the money, the person by whom the money is held may, if that person thinks fit, pay the money to the Commissioner of Inland Revenue and send to the Commissioner particulars of the payment and of the person on whose behalf the money was held; and the person by whom the money was held is thereupon relieved from all further liability in respect of the money so paid.

5. All money paid to the Commissioner of Inland Revenue under this section is to be deemed to have been so paid as unclaimed money, and section 11 of the Unclaimed Money Act 1971 is to apply to it.

6. Where a person has paid any money to the Commissioner of Inland Revenue under this section, the Commissioner may at any time require that person or any other person to give to the Commissioner all such information as the Commissioner may require in relation to the ownership of the money, including information as to the steps taken to trace the person on whose behalf the money was held.

7. Every person commits an offence against this Act and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $25,000 who refuses or wilfully neglects to give any such information that is in that person's possession or control when so required, or wilfully gives any false information in answer to any such requisition.