150.—(1) The Authority may from time to time inspect, under conditions of secrecy, the books of a primary dealer relating to its business referred to in section 145(1) for the purposes of ensuring that —
(a)
any condition or restriction imposed by the Authority under section 146 on the primary dealer is complied with;
(b)
any direction given by the Authority under section 147 to the primary dealer is complied with; or
(c)
the primary dealer has satisfied or satisfies any of its obligations under or arising from this Part.
[9/2013; 31/2017]
(2) For the purposes of an inspection under this section —
(a)
a primary dealer, and any person who is in possession of the books of the primary dealer relating to its business referred to in section 145(1), must produce such books (and afford the Authority access to the books) and provide such information and facilities as may be required by the Authority to conduct the inspection;
(b)
the primary dealer must procure that any such person in paragraph (a) who is in possession of the primary dealer’s books produce the books to the Authority and give such information or facilities as may be required by the Authority; and
(c)
the Authority may —
(i)
make copies of, or take possession of, any of such books; and
(ii)
retain possession of any of such books for so long as is necessary for the purposes of exercising a power conferred by this section (except subsection (4)).
[9/2013; 31/2017]
(3) No person is entitled, as against the Authority, to claim a lien on any of the books, but such a lien is not otherwise prejudiced.
[9/2013]
(4) While the books of a primary dealer are in the Authority’s possession, the Authority —
(a)
must permit any other person to inspect at all reasonable times such (if any) of the books as that other person would be entitled to inspect if the books were not in the Authority’s possession; and
(b)
may permit any other person to inspect any of the books.
[9/2013]
(5) The Authority may require a person who produced any book to the Authority to explain, to the best of the person’s knowledge and belief, any matter about the compilation of the book or to which the book relates.
[9/2013]
(6) Any person who, without reasonable excuse, fails to comply with subsection (2) or a requirement of the Authority under subsection (5) shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $50,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years or to both and, in the case of a continuing offence, to a further fine not exceeding $5,000 for every day or part of a day during which the offence continues after conviction.
[9/2013]
(7) In this section, “books” includes any record, register, document or other record of information, and any account or accounting record, however compiled, recorded or stored, whether in written or printed form or on microfilm or in any electronic form or otherwise.