Trespassers on your commercial property in Queensland.

If someone is trespassing on your commercial property in Queensland, tell them clearly to leave, note the time and what was said, and call police if they refuse or the situation feels unsafe. Under section 11 of the Summary Offences Act 2005 it is an offence to unlawfully enter or remain in a place used for a business purpose, carrying a maximum of 20 penalty units or a year's imprisonment. The law also lets an occupier use force that is reasonably necessary to remove a trespasser, short of grievous bodily harm. In most real situations a witnessed direction to leave, a camera and a phone call achieve more than hands ever will.

What counts as trespass on a business site

The offence sits in section 11(2) of the Summary Offences Act 2005 (Qld): a person must not unlawfully enter, or remain in, a place used for a business purpose, or a place used as a yard for a business purpose. That covers the shop floor, the warehouse, the fenced compound, the car yard and the hardstand out the back.

The maximum penalty is 20 penalty units or 1 year's imprisonment. A Queensland penalty unit rose to $172.70 on 1 July 2026, so 20 units is $3,454. Where a circumstance of aggravation under section 52B of the Criminal Code applies, meaning the offence was motivated wholly or partly by hatred or serious contempt, the maximum doubles to 40 penalty units.

Pay attention to the two verbs. Enter covers the person who comes over your fence at 2am. Remain in is the one most business owners need, because premises open to the public carry an implied licence for people to walk in. A stranger browsing your showroom is not trespassing. Once you withdraw that permission and they stay, they are.

Step one: withdraw permission out loud

Almost every commercial trespass matter turns on whether the person was told to leave and refused. That is the fact police assess, so create it deliberately.

• Say it plainly. "You are on private property. I am asking you to leave now." Avoid negotiating the point or debating why.
• Say it in front of a witness where you can, and where a camera covers you.
• Write down the time, the words used, and what they said back, the same day while it is accurate.
• Leave them a clear path out. Standing between a person and the gate turns a trespass into a detention argument.
• If they have been warned before, say so. A pattern of documented warnings carries far more weight than a single incident.

Keep your own footage. Cameras that overwrite every three days are no use a fortnight later when police ask. Our guide to CCTV laws for Queensland businesses covers retention and what you can lawfully record.

What force the law allows

Section 277 of the Criminal Code lets a person in peaceable possession of a place, or entitled to its control or management, use force that is reasonably necessary to stop someone wrongfully entering, or to remove someone who is wrongfully remaining. The hard limit written into that section is grievous bodily harm. Cross it and the protection disappears.

"Reasonably necessary" is judged against the situation in front of you, and it is judged afterwards by someone who was not there. A hand on a shoulder guiding someone toward a gate reads very differently to a tackle in a gravel yard. Use more force than the moment called for and you can be charged with assault and sued, with your business carrying the claim.

That is why we train officers to treat physical removal as the last option on the list. A licensed officer standing in the yard, on camera, calmly repeating a lawful direction resolves the overwhelming majority of these jobs.

Detaining someone is a bigger decision again. Chapter 58 of the Criminal Code allows a private citizen to arrest a person found committing an offence for which police could arrest without warrant, and the person must then be handed to police without delay. Get it wrong and you are open to claims for wrongful arrest, false imprisonment and assault. Trespass on its own rarely justifies that exposure.

Which police number to call

Queensland Police draw a clear line between the two numbers.

• Triple Zero (000) for anything life-threatening or time critical, and for a crime happening right now. A person actively cutting your fence at 1am is a 000 call.
• Policelink (131 444) for non-urgent matters, including damage, stealing and break-ins discovered after the fact, when the offenders are unlikely to still be around. Policelink runs 24/7 and also takes online reports.

Either way, get an incident or reference number and file it. Repeat trespass is treated far more seriously when you can hand over a dated list of reports rather than a recollection.

The signage question, answered honestly

Plenty of businesses believe a sign is what makes trespass enforceable. A sign does not create the offence. The Queensland Law Handbook puts it bluntly: signs saying "No Trespassers" are "legally meaningless", in the sense that they do not turn an entrant into a trespasser and do not strip away the duty of care an occupier owes to a trespasser.

Signs still earn their place. They remove any argument that someone reasonably thought they were welcome, and they discourage the opportunist who was only half committed. Put them at every gate, name the occupier, and photograph them in place with a date so you can prove they were up on the night in question.

The duty of care point catches people out. You owe a duty of care to people on your site even when they had no right to be there. An open trench, an unguarded drop or unsecured plant is your exposure regardless of how the person got in. Locking a hazard away is both a safety obligation and a security control.

Repeat trespass is a site design problem

One-off trespass is bad luck. A third occurrence at the same access point is a design fault, and it responds to design fixes.

• Find the actual entry point. There is almost always one: a gap behind a shed, a low section of fence near a drain, a gate whose chain has been cut and rehung to look closed.
• Light it. Cheap, immediate, and it removes the cover that makes the spot attractive.
• Control the gates. Coded or credentialled access control ends the shared-padlock problem and gives you a record of who opened what and when.
• Make presence unpredictable. Randomised mobile patrols through the risk window break the habit repeat trespassers rely on. A site that sat empty every night for a month, and now has a marked vehicle through it at odd hours, is no longer an easy option.
• Write it down every time. A consistent incident log turns "we keep having trouble" into a case police and your insurer can act on.

Long-term occupation of a vacant commercial building is the expensive version of this problem, and it gets harder to resolve the longer it runs. If someone has settled in, get legal advice early.

FAQ

Can a security guard remove a trespasser in Queensland?

Section 277 of the Criminal Code lets a person in peaceable possession of a place, or entitled to its control or management, use force that is reasonably necessary to remove someone wrongfully remaining, provided they do not do grievous bodily harm. A licensed officer engaged by the occupier works from that authority. In practice the first and best tool is a clear, witnessed direction to leave, backed by cameras and a written log. Force beyond what the moment required can become an assault charge and a civil claim against the business.

What signage do I need to enforce trespass in Queensland?

No sign is legally required, and no sign creates the offence on its own. The Queensland Law Handbook is blunt about it: signs saying "No Trespassers" are legally meaningless, in that they do not turn an entrant into a trespasser and do not remove the duty of care an occupier owes a trespasser. What signs do is remove any argument about whether entry was permitted, which matters when police decide whether entry was unlawful. Put them at every gate, name the occupier, and keep dated photographs of them in place.

How we handle it

We start with the entry point. A security consulting walk-through identifies where people are getting in and which of lighting, fencing, access control and patrols closes it for the least money. From there we set a patrol cadence that fits the risk window and give you an incident log your insurer will accept. We cover commercial sites across Ipswich, Goodna and Redbank, and the same approach applies to warehouse and industrial sites.

This article is general information about Queensland law and is not legal advice. For advice on your own situation, speak to a Queensland solicitor, and for anything in progress call police.

Get a written plan for the site

Tell us where people are getting in and how often it has happened. We will walk the site, tell you which fix earns its keep first, and price the patrol cover around it. Request a site visit → or call 0414 829 850.

Published 13 August 2026 · Anthony Tupper, Founder · Tupper Security Services holds Queensland Security Firm Licence (Class 1) #4572076.