Summary Offences Act 1981

Offences against persons or property

11B: Possession of graffiti implements

You could also call this:

"Having things to do graffiti vandalism without a good reason is against the law"

Illustration for Summary Offences Act 1981

You can get in trouble if you have something that can be used to commit graffiti vandalism. This can happen if you have no good reason for having it and it seems like you plan to use it for vandalism, as stated in section 11A. You might have to do community work or pay a fine of up to $500, or both.

This text is automatically generated. It might be out of date or be missing some parts. Find out more about how we do this.

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM1405202.

This page was last updated on 11 December 2025 — View changes

Topics:

Crime and justice > Police and safetyEnvironment and resources > Conservation

11A: Graffiti vandalism, tagging, defacing, etc, or

"Don't damage someone else's property by drawing or painting on it without permission."

12: Acts endangering safety, or

"Doing things in public that might hurt others is against the law"

11BPossession of graffiti implements

A person is liable to a sentence of community work or a fine not exceeding $500, or to both, if without reasonable excuse he or she has in his or her possession a thing capable of being used to commit an offence against section 11A in circumstances in which it can reasonably be inferred that he or she intends to use it to commit such an offence.

Notes

Section 11B: inserted, on 26 June 2008, by section 4(1) of the Summary Offences (Tagging and Graffiti Vandalism) Amendment Act 2008 (2008 No 43).