Infringement Notices & the Demerit Points Scheme
Infringement notices are another enforcement tool. They impose administrative fines and are a cheaper and faster alternative to prosecution for breaches of the regulations.
Because they still require the criminal standard of evidentiary proof and may require further investigation, they are generally only issued for strict liability offences. Enforcement Manual, Chapter 8 – Infringement Notices
If a person served with an infringement notice chooses to pay the fine they will incur demerit points but will not be subject to any further criminal proceedings in relation to that offence.
If a person elects to have the matter dealt with by the court, it will be open to the prosecutor to charge the person with other offences arising out of the same matter. If convicted or found guilty, a person will incur demerit points in relation to each offence.
The Demerit Points Scheme is a system set up under Division 3D of Part III of the Civil Aviation Act and provides a staged approach for dealing with a holder who has multiple, or repeated, breaches of regulatory requirements. Under the Scheme, demerit points are incurred for such breaches. After a predetermined number of points have been accumulated within a specified period of time, all the holder’s authorisations, of that particular class, must be suspended or cancelled. As the period within which accumulation of demerit points may be counted against the holder is determined by the legislation, this largely removes the scope of CASA’s discretion. Enforcement Manual, Chapter 10 – Demerit Points Scheme