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Summary Offences Act 1981

Offences against public order

5: Disorderly behaviour on private premises

You could also call this:

"Causing trouble with others on private property can lead to fines or prison time."

Illustration for Summary Offences Act 1981

You can get in trouble if you behave badly on private property with two or more other people who have been in trouble with the law in the past two years. If you and the other people are being disorderly and people nearby are scared you will commit a crime, you could go to prison for up to three months or pay a fine of up to $2,000. A relevant offence includes things like assault, threatening behaviour, or having offensive weapons, as well as offences against section 86 or section 87 of the Crimes Act 1961.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM53504.

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4: Offensive behaviour or language, or

"Behaving badly or using offensive language in public can get you in trouble"

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5A: Disorderly assembly, or

"Being part of a group that scares others with violent or damaging behaviour in a public place"

5Disorderly behaviour on private premises

  1. Where 3 or more persons, each of whom has been convicted of a relevant offence within the previous 2 years, conduct themselves on any private premises in such a manner as to cause persons in the neighbourhood of those premises to fear on reasonable grounds that those 3 or more persons will commit or cause any other person to commit any relevant offence in that neighbourhood or elsewhere, each of those 3 or more persons is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 months or a fine not exceeding $2,000.

  2. In this section relevant offence means—

  3. any offence of, or of which an ingredient is,—
    1. assault; or
      1. threatening or offensive or disorderly behaviour; or
        1. possession of offensive weapons:
        2. an offence against section 86 (unlawful assembly) or section 87 (riot) of the Crimes Act 1961.

          Compare
          • 1927 No 35 s 34A
          • 1976 No 157 s 2
          Notes
          • Section 5(1): amended, on , by section 7 of the Summary Offences Amendment Act 1997 (1997 No 97).