Adelaide chef Ibrahim Abbas faces sentencing submissions for trafficking cannabis
How did a top SA chef get involved in a cannabis racket with a bankrupt yogi and a man with an IVF debt? A court has finally been given answers.
Police & Courts
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A renowned Adelaide chef has admitted selling his excess cannabis to a bankrupt yogi and a man with an IVF debt – but insists they “helped themselves” to his restaurant equipment to package more drugs for sale.
On Thursday, Ibrahim Abbas asked the District Court to spare him a prison term for selling $12,500 worth of “surplus” cannabis to his old friend, yoga instructor Darren Stephen Brown.
Stephen White, for Abbas – former head chef of Spices at the Stamford Plaza – said that was his client’s only crime, insisting he played no further role in Brown’s larger $137,000 trafficking operation.
Abbas, he said, had only agreed to sell Brown any surplus from the cannabis he grew to combat his “chronic pain”, and was caught off-guard by the events of October 30, 2022.
“Brown and another man, Adam Turner, attended my client’s home and had two or three boxes or bags (of cannabis) with them … Brown wanted to access my client’s cryovac (sealing) machine and bags,” he said.
“My client had the machine from the days when he operated his restaurant … he permitted them to use it (to package cannabis), taking the view he had nothing to do with the cannabis they brought with them.
“He received $12,500 from them in exchange for 2.26kg of cannabis … Brown and Turner effectively helped themselves to the machine.”
Abbas, 65, of Flagstaff Hill, pleaded guilty to trafficking in a large commercial quantity of a controlled drug and to possessing prescribed equipment.
The charges arise from his role in a $137,000 cannabis trafficking scheme that also involved Brown, 47, of Queensland and Turner, 41, of Victoria.
Brown and Turner admitted they were caught in possession of 21.1kg of cannabis worth $136,584, as well as $7409 in cash.
Brown, a longtime friend of Abbas who offended to fund his struggling Gold Coast Bikram yoga studio, is serving a four-year prison term.
Turner, whose motive was to pay a “maxxed out” credit card debt incurred by funding IVF treatments for his wife, was jailed for 27 months.
On Thursday, Mr White said his client was a hardworking man who had performed charity work with the Variety Club Bash for Children.
He said a knee injury, followed by surgery, had led to the end of his business and created an $80,000 tax debt – prompting him to grow cannabis for pain relief and sell the surplus to Brown.
“He has tearfully admitted he was aware his actions were illegal, saying ‘I shouldn’t have done it, I know that, but I trusted Darren, we have known each other for more than 20 years’,” he said.
“There can be no doubt as to the remorse and contrition of this man.”
Prosecutors said Abbas should still be punished for allowing use of his machinery to package the additional cannabis, even if the court was satisfied he did not know Brown and Turner were bringing it with them.
Judge Michael Burnett remanded Abbas on continuing bail for sentencing in two weeks’ time.
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