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An ex-AFL umpire has been committed to trial over allegations he passed insider information to his brother and associates about Brownlow Medal votes for them to bet on.
Michael Pell, his brother Donovan and associate Mitch Lucas faced a committal hearing this week at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court over alleged betting fraud.
Their lawyers argued that all of their charges should be dropped due to loopholes in the wording of the law, and Victoria not creating an offence on trading insider information.
At the heart of the day’s back-and-forth were two key issues: what it means to affect the outcome of a bet, and whether you can have information about information.
Representing the older Pell, defence barrister Sam Tovey said the conduct alleged against his client was incapable of constituting conduct that could corrupt a betting outcome because “it did not, in fact could not, affect the outcome of any betting on the Brownlow Medal”.
But magistrate Patrick Southey rejected these claims and found there was enough evidence for all three to stand trial.
He said Pell might have engaged in corrupt conduct by divulging confidential information about the 2021 Brownlow vote to his brother and Lucas, who put bets on as a result.
“He knew his position and that he was acting corruptly in divulging that information, and there’s evidence of course that they acted on that information,” Southey told the court on Thursday.
“And it seems to be that information did corrupt the betting outcome: they won and the agencies lost.”
After committing the men, the magistrate noted his feelings on the case after reading each lawyer’s extensive submissions.
“It made me sad that for young men of a certain generation, gambling and sport go hand in hand,” Southey said.
The group are alleged to have made about $300,000 from the betting scheme.
The Pell brothers and Lucas all pleaded not guilty to all of their offences in court on Thursday.
Pell was arrested in November 2022 but not charged until August 2025, and Tovey earlier argued the prosecution’s case against him could be discharged because Victoria did not have laws on trading insider information.
“You have here what can only be seen as a deliberate omission by this state to include an insider information offence,” Tovey said. “Each jurisdiction has outlawed insider information other than Victoria.”
The ex-umpire is charged with six betting fraud offences for allegedly disclosing information on some players’ vote tallies during the 2021 Brownlow Medal and passing that on to people who made bets on it.
Field umpires award Brownlow votes on a 3-2-1 basis to players immediately after every match.
“There is no allegation that the votes themselves are tainted or corrupted in any way,” Tovey said.
“On the prosecution case, those tallies were unaltered, true, genuine – Mr Pell simply knew what they were.”
Any ambiguity in the legislation “is to be resolved in favour of the accused”, Tovey said.
Prosecutor Greg Buchhorn disagreed with the defence and said the legislation was broad enough to include trading insider information.
“Victoria didn’t excise insider information from the legislation … the legislation already covered it,” he told the court.
He said Pell’s disclosure of the information was “corrupting conduct”, and when he told Donovan and Lucas about the Brownlow votes, they knew he was an AFL umpire.
They then placed bets using that information, or shared it with colleagues, which he said was another element of the offence.
Southey ultimately agreed with the prosecution’s submissions.
“They won a lot of money on the games that Michael Pell was umpiring,” he said. “As I read the legislation, it couldn’t be plainer that as a result of their insider information the outcome of the betting was changed.”
The group, who all remain on bail, will face the County Court for a directions hearing on July 24.
Bridget McArthur is a sports affairs reporter at The Age, covering the intersection of sports and politics/business/economy/society.Connect via X or email.From our partners
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