Subdivision C—Offences relating to debt bondage

271.8 Offence of debt bondage

(1) A person commits an offence of debt bondage if:

(a) the person engages in conduct that causes another person to enter into debt bondage; and

(b) the person intends to cause the other person to enter into debt bondage.

Penalty: Imprisonment for 12 months.

(2) In determining, for the purposes of any proceedings for an offence against subsection (1), whether a person (the first person) has caused another person (the second person) to enter into debt bondage, a court, or if the trial is before a jury, the jury, may have regard to any of the following matters:

(a) the economic relationship between the first person and the second person;

(b) the terms of any written or oral contract or agreement between the second person and another person (whether or not the first person);

(c) the personal circumstances of the second person, including but not limited to:

(i) whether the second person is entitled to be in Australia under the Migration Act 1958; and

(ii) the second person’s ability to speak, write and understand English or the language in which the deception or inducement occurred; and

(iii) the extent of the second person’s social and physical dependence on the first person.

(3) Subsection (2) does not:

(a) prevent the leading of any other evidence in proceedings for an offence against subsection (1); or

(b) limit the manner in which evidence may be adduced or the admissibility of evidence.

271.9 Offence of aggravated debt bondage

(1) A person commits an offence of aggravated debt bondage if the person commits an offence of debt bondage in relation to another person (the victim) and the victim is under 18.

Penalty: Imprisonment for 2 years.

(2) In order to prove an offence of aggravated debt bondage, the prosecution must prove that the defendant intended to commit, or was reckless as to committing, the offence against a person under that age.

(3) If, on a trial for an offence against this section, the court, or if the trial is before a jury, the jury, is not satisfied that the defendant is guilty of the aggravated offence, but is satisfied that he or she is guilty of an offence against section 271.8, it may find the defendant not guilty of the aggravated offence but guilty of an offence against that section.