160 Postal articles

160. Postal articles

(1) It is presumed (unless evidence sufficient to raise doubt about the presumption is adduced) that a postal article sent by prepaid post addressed to a person at a specified address in Australia or in an external Territory was received at that address on the fourth working day after having been posted.

(2) This section does not apply if-

(a) the proceeding relates to a contract; and

(b) all the parties to the proceeding are parties to the contract; and

(c) subsection (1) is inconsistent with a term of the contract.

(3) In this section, working day means a day that is not-

(a) a Saturday or a Sunday; or

(b) a public holiday or a bank holiday in the place to which the postal article was addressed.

Note

Section 182 of the Commonwealth Act gives section 160 of the Commonwealth
Act a wider application in relation to postal articles sent by a Commonwealth agency.

It is unlikely that this provision will greatly change the requirement on the prosecution to demonstrate knowledge for offences such as disqualified driving under s 30 of the Road Safety Act 1986. Similar provisions have been in place for many years relating to the postal service of various documents and notices without removing the requirement that the prosecution prove the requisite guilty mind.

Where a claim of honest and reasonable mistake is asserted, the position may be different.