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Land Transport Act 1998

Offences relating to transport services and penalties

79M: Penalties for failure to pay service fares, etc

You could also call this:

"What happens if you don't pay your fare on public transport"

Illustration for Land Transport Act 1998

If you fail to pay a passenger service fare, you commit an infringement offence. You also commit an offence if you fail to provide evidence of paying the fare when asked by an enforcement officer, as stated in section 128F(1). You must follow the enforcement officer's directions. If you are asked for your identifying particulars by an enforcement officer, as stated in section 128F(2)(a), you must provide them. You must also follow the officer's directions to disembark the public transport service, as stated in section 128F(2)(b). If you do not, you commit an offence. If you tried to pay the fare but there was no way to pay, you have a defence against the offence. The maximum penalty for some offences is a fine of up to $500. The maximum penalty for other offences is a fine of up to $1,000. A public transport service is defined in section 5 of the Land Transport Management Act 2003. This definition applies to this section of the law. You should understand what a public transport service is to know when you are liable to pay a fare.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM434870.

Topics:
Transport and travel > Public transportMoney and consumer rights > Fines and penalties
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79L: Court may require convicted transport service licence holder to sit examination, or

"Court can make transport service licence holders take a test if they break rules"

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79N: Failure to keep or produce records or comply with conditions of exemption or approval, or

"Breaking transport rules: not keeping records or following conditions"

Part 6AOffences relating to transport services and penalties

79MPenalties for failure to pay service fares, etc

  1. A person who fails to pay a passenger service fare that the person is liable to pay commits an infringement offence.

  2. A person commits an infringement offence if, in relation to a public transport service fare that the person is liable to pay, the person—

  3. fails to pay the fare; or
    1. fails to provide (in response to an enforcement officer’s direction given in accordance with section 128F(1)) evidence of having paid the fare.

      1. A person commits an offence if, in relation to a public transport service fare that the person is liable to pay, the person—

      2. fails to provide (in response to an enforcement officer’s direction given in accordance with section 128F(2)(a)) the identifying particulars referred to in section 128F(2)(a); or
        1. boards, or fails or refuses to disembark, the public transport service in contravention of an enforcement officer’s direction given in accordance with section 128F(2)(b).

          1. It is a defence to an offence against subsection (1) or (2)(a) or (b) if a person made reasonable attempts to pay the fare and there were no available means of paying.

          2. The maximum penalty on conviction for an offence against subsection (1) or (2)(a) or (b) is a fine not exceeding $500.

          3. The maximum penalty on conviction for an offence against subsection (3)(a) or (b) is a fine not exceeding $1,000.

          4. For the purposes of this section, public transport service has the same meaning as in section 5 of the Land Transport Management Act 2003.

          Notes
          • Section 79M: replaced, on , by section 37 of the Land Transport Amendment Act 2017 (2017 No 34).