Marginal note:Report on administration of Act

29. As soon as practicable after the expiration of a period of five years beginning on the earliest day on which this Act or a provision thereof is in force, whether as regards electricity or gas or both, the Minister shall prepare a report with respect to the administration of this Act during that period and shall lay a copy of the report before Parliament on any of the first fifteen days that either House of Parliament is sitting after he completes it.

Marginal note:Falsification and meter frauds

30. Every person who

• (a) except as authorized by or under this Act, makes, causes or procures to be made, or assists in making any certificate required under this Act or purporting to be a certificate so required or any stamp, seal, label, tag or mark prescribed for the purposes of this Act or purporting to be a stamp, seal, label, tag or mark so prescribed,

• (b) knowingly sells, utters or disposes of, lets, uses, lends or exposes for sale any meter with any stamp, seal, label, tag or mark thereon made or obtained by means of the commission of an offence under paragraph (a) or section 32 or made or affixed by way of the use of anything so obtained,

• (c) in relation to the administration of this Act, knowingly

  • (i) makes any false representation,

  • (ii) makes or causes to be made any false entry in any register or record,

  • (iii) makes or causes to be made any false document or makes any alteration, false in a material respect, to the form of a copy of any document, or

  • (iv) produces or tenders any document containing false information,

• (d) for a fraudulent purpose,

  • (i) repairs or alters, or causes to be repaired or altered, or tampers with or does any other act in relation to a meter, or any wires or pipes leading to a meter, so as to cause the meter to register with an error, or

  • (ii) replaces any meter with a meter calculated to mislead, or

• (e) with intent to defraud, obtains, consumes, uses, supplies or sells electricity or gas in relation to which any meter

  • (i) registers with an error caused by an offence under paragraph (d), or

  • (ii) in the case of commission therewith of an offence under subparagraph (d)(ii), is calculated to mislead,

is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years.

Marginal note:Forfeiture

• 31. (1) Subject to subsections (2) to (5), where any person is convicted of an offence under paragraph 30(b), any meter to which the offence relates is, in addition to any punishment imposed for the offence, forfeited to Her Majesty if that forfeiture is ordered by the court, in which event the meter shall be destroyed or otherwise disposed of as the Minister may direct.

• Marginal note:Application by person claiming interest or right

  (2) When any meter is ordered to be forfeited under subsection (1), any person, other than a party to the proceedings that resulted in the order, who claims an interest or right in the meter as owner, mortgagee or hypothecary creditor, as lien holder or holder of a prior claim or of any like interest or right may, within 30 days after the making of the order of forfeiture, apply to any superior court of competent jurisdiction for an order under subsection (5) after which the court shall fix a day for the hearing of the application.

• Marginal note:Notice

  (3) An applicant for an order under subsection (5) shall, at least 30 days prior to the day fixed for the hearing of the application, serve a notice of the application and of the hearing on the Minister and on all other persons who have claimed an interest or right in the meter that is the subject matter of the application as owner, mortgagee or hypothecary creditor, as lien holder or holder of a prior claim or of any like interest or right of whom the applicant has knowledge.

• Marginal note:Notice of intervention

  (4) Each person, other than the Minister, who is served with a notice under subsection (3) and who intends to appear at the hearing of the application to which the notice relates shall, at least ten days prior to the day fixed for the hearing, file an appropriate notice of intervention in the record of the court and serve a copy thereof on the Minister and on the applicant.

• Marginal note:Order declaring nature and extent of interests or rights

  (5) If, on the hearing of an application under this section, the court is satisfied that the applicant or any intervenor

  • (a) is innocent of any complicity in any conduct that caused the meter to be subject to forfeiture and of any collusion in relation to any such conduct, and

  • (b) exercised all reasonable care in respect of the persons permitted to obtain possession and use of the meter to satisfy himself or herself that it was not likely to be used in the commission of an offence under paragraph 30(b) or, in the case of a mortgagee or hypothecary creditor or a lien holder or a holder of a prior claim, that they exercised such care with respect to the mortgagor or hypothecary debtor or the giver of a lien or prior claim,

  the applicant, intervenor or both are entitled to an order declaring that their interests or rights are not affected by the forfeiture and declaring the nature and extent of each of their interests or rights and the rankings among them, and the court may, in addition, order that the meter to which the interests or rights relate be delivered to one or more of the persons found to have an interest or right in the meter or that an amount equal to the value of each of the interests or rights so declared be paid to the persons found to have those interests or rights.