Music legend Digger Revell sentenced over cannabis set-up

Who’s the Aussie music legend busted over a drug set-up? Which law firm reckons they could defend Scarface? And why the District Court’s gain means pain for a massive organised crime case. The Snitch is here.

An Australian rock music pioneer ran a sophisticated cannabis plantation from his home that was uncovered by a major police operation.

Court records have revealed Digger Revell is a 1960s renaissance man in ways that stretch far beyond the musical skills that made him a chart-topping regular on the Johnny O’Keefe Show and Bandstand.

Ahead of the 83-year-old’s run of gigs next month, Snitch can reveal Revell was sentenced last year over a 200-cannabis plant hydroponic operation that police discovered at his northern NSW home.

Word from law enforcement sources is that Revell — whose song I’m Building Castles in the Air was recognised as one of the 100 greatest Australian singles of the 1960s — was a reliable source of hooch for his mates in Carool.

He came unstuck last February when NSW Police ran a major cannabis eradication operation involving the police chopper, sniffer dogs and detectives from the Robbery and Serious Crime squad.

Australian singer Digger Revell in 2001.

Revell was a chart-topper in the 1960s.

They attended Revell’s home on February 2, 2024, and found an indoor hydroponic set-up that included fans, lights, cannabis leaf and about 200 plants.

The case was finalised on July 3 in Tweed Heads Local Court.

Revell was born in Dubbo Hospital as Gary Benjamin Hildred and was sentenced under that name by Magistrate Geoff Dunleavy.

He pleaded guilty to cultivating cannabis that was between an indictable and commercial amount, drug supply and cultivating cannabis, and was sentenced to a three-year community corrections order.

Revell (centre) with NRL legends Paul Vautin (left) and Mark Geyer

It’s not the first time the renegade musician has been in trouble.

He served 12 months in jail in 2001 — and formed a band behind bars — after a similar cannabis plantation was discovered at his home.

That year, Revell also pleaded guilty to defrauding the tax office by $96,000 after understating his income earned through his band.

SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE DEFENCE

We can’t decide if a Sydney law firm’s efforts on TikTok is the most millennial thing ever or a genius way of speaking to its market.

It could be both.

But a recent clip posted by Sydney Triumph Lawyers claims they could have gotten Al Pacino’s Tony Montana a reduced sentence for self defence for his wildly high kill count in the iconic final scene of Scarface.

Mohammed Algalele from Sydney Triumph Lawyers in a TikTok video.

After Montana says “Say hello to my little friend” and fires his grenade launcher and M16 at the army of henchmen invading his mansion, Snitch counts about 20 murders.

So let’s forget that Tony takes a shotgun blast to the back and dies facedown in his indoor fountain.

If he lived, would his case have been defendable?

We’ll let the firm’s principal, Mohammed Algalele, take it from here.

Self defence? Sydney Triumph Lawyers believe so.

“If Tony Montana was our client we probably would have been able to get him a reduced sentence on the basis of self-defence, on the basis that he was in his own home,” Mr Algalele says on the video while chomping on a cigar over an opulent golden chess set.

“But, you know, there would be a lot of expert reports required.”

It’s about halfway through the video that you notice the escalating tension courtesy of the Hollywood-style soundtrack.

In another video, which has been viewed 64,000 times, Mr Algalele spells out how his firm would defend The Joker on mass-murder charges, based on Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the supervillain in 2008’s The Dark Knight.

Mental health defence for Heath Ledger’s The Joker.

In this case, they would have the case dismissed under the Mental Health Act.

“If The Joker were to attend our office and he were charged with those specific offences a section 14 or section 32 may assist him,” Mr Algalele said.

“However we would need to provide expert reports from psychiatrists and psychologists to prove that at the commission of the offence he suffered from a pre-existing psychological disorder.”

AN0M CASES PUSHED TO 2026

The massive backlog in the District Court is set to be eased, but it will come at the expense of the state’s biggest organised crime case.

This week, the trials of a large proportion of the AN0M-50 were taken off the court’s 2025 calendar and pushed into 2026.

The cases were scheduled to begin mid-this year, but the court was told this week that they will be delayed until their legal challenge to the High Court is finalised.

More than 250 crime figures were arrested in a 2021 sting, where so-called encrypted phones were revealed to be a trojan horse planted in their ranks by a global police operation.

About 50 of those charged have banded together to challenge the admissibility of the evidence collected on the phones to the High Court.

If they win, the cases fall apart.

A loss means the cases continue with the phone evidence to be included in the case.

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