Criminal Code Act 1995

Schedule - The Criminal Code  

Section 3

CHAPTER 10 - NATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE  

Part 10.5 - Postal services  

Division 471 - Postal offences  

Subdivision A - General postal offences  

SECTION 471.6   Damaging or destroying mail-receptacles, articles or postal messages  

(1)    
A person commits an offence if:

(a) the person engages in conduct; and

(b) the person ' s conduct causes damage to, or the destruction of:

(i) a mail-receptacle; or

(ii) an article in the course of post (including an article that appears to have been lost or wrongly delivered by or on behalf of Australia Post or lost in the course of delivery to Australia Post); or

(iii) a postal message; and

(c) the person:

(i) intends that his or her conduct cause that damage; or

(ii) is reckless as to whether his or her conduct causes that damage.

Penalty: Imprisonment for 10 years.

(2)    
For the purposes of this section, a person ' s conduct is taken to cause the destruction of a thing if the person ' s conduct causes the physical loss of the thing by interfering with the thing (including by removing any restraint over the thing or abandoning the thing).

(3)    
For the purposes of this section, a person ' s conduct is taken to cause damage to a thing if:

(a) the person ' s conduct causes any loss of a use of the function of the thing by interfering with the thing; or

(b) the person ' s conduct causes the thing to be defaced.