Refuse or fail to comply with a public health risk or emergency power direction or requirement

Legislation: Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008 (Vic) s 203

Maximum penalty: 120 penalty units (natural person); 600 penalty units (body corporate)

Period: 1 July 2019 to 30 June 2024

Jurisdiction: higher courts

On SACStat, a charge is a single count of an offence
On SACStat, a case is a collection of one or more charges sentenced at a hearing

*Note: unavailable options have under 10 cases

Charge data

In the higher courts, 16 charges of refuse or fail to comply with a public health risk or emergency power direction or requirement were sentenced in the five years to 30 June 2024. The most common sentence for a charge of this offence was a fine (75% or 12 charges).

On SACStat, a charge is a single count of a sentenced offence. Charge data is most useful in understanding how a specific crime is usually sentenced.

Case data

In the higher courts, refuse or fail to comply with a public health risk or emergency power direction or requirement was the principal proven offence (the most serious crime in the case) in fewer than 10 cases in the five years to 30 June 2024. Therefore, outcomes for cases are not given for this offence.

Figure 1: Sentencing outcomes for all charges of refuse or fail to comply with a public health risk or emergency power direction or requirement

Number: 16 charges

Bar graph showing sentence types imposed for charges of refuse or fail to comply with a public health risk or emergency power direction or requirement

See Table 1 in the Excel data file for the data in this graph.

Figure 5: Fine amounts for charges of refuse or fail to comply with a public health risk or emergency power direction or requirement

Number: 11 charges

Range and median: The lowest fine amount is $100, the highest is $3,000, and the median is $700, meaning that half of the fine amounts are below $700 and half are above.

Note: The graph only includes fines that were not part of an aggregate sentence (non-aggregate fines).

Bar graph showing fine amounts for charges of refuse or fail to comply with a public health risk or emergency power direction or requirement

See Table 5 in the Excel data file for the data in this graph.

Figure 6: Sentencing outcomes for all charges of refuse or fail to comply with a public health risk or emergency power direction or requirement by financial year

Number: 16 charges

Stacked bar graph showing sentences imposed each year for charges of refuse or fail to comply with a public health risk or emergency power direction or requirement

See Table 6 in the Excel data file for the data in this graph.

Figure 7: Number of charges of refuse or fail to comply with a public health risk or emergency power direction or requirement by financial year

Number: 16 charges

Bar graph showing the number of charges each year for the offence of refuse or fail to comply with a public health risk or emergency power direction or requirement

See Table 7 in the Excel data file for the data in this graph.

Figure 10: Average fine amounts for charges of refuse or fail to comply with a public health risk or emergency power direction or requirement by financial year

Number: 11 charges

Note: The graph only includes fines that were not part of an aggregate sentence (non-aggregate fines).

Bar graph showing fines amounts each year for charges of refuse or fail to comply with a public health risk or emergency power direction or requirement

See Table 10 in the Excel data file for the data in this graph.