Steven Abouri: former Keysborough Secondary College student caught with marijuana

A talented Cranbourne East footballer was about to launch himself into the big time, only to drop his bundle due to drugs and booze.

Talented footballer Steven Abouri has been brought to ground for possession of a trafficable amount of marijuana.

A talented footballer who moved to Dandenong with his family from South Sudan as a six- year-old fell off the rails in a Covid-induced drug and booze spiral, a court has heard.

Steven Abouri, 22, pleaded guilty to being drunk and in possession of a trafficable amount of marijuana in Cranbourne South on April 11 in the Frankston Magistrates’ Court on Friday.

The magistrate described the offence as “a bit of a shame”.

The court was told that Abouri, who lives in Cranbourne East, was one of multiple uninvited guests outside a Cranbourne South house party shortly after midnight on April 11, when police found him “heavily drunk” before a plastic bag containing 59g of marijuana he was carrying fell onto the ground.

Abouri plead guilty to trafficking a drug of dependence and of being in possession of $459 which was suspected to have been the proceeds of crime.

Abouri’s defence lawyer Stacey Stanley said the young man had moved from South Sudan at the age of six with his parents and younger brother, after his elder brother was killed in South Sudan.

Ms Stanley said Abouri had finished Year 12 at Keysborough Secondary College, where his passion for football became apparent.

“He was an avid footballer,” she said.

Ms Stanley told the court that Abouri received a scholarship to play football in Queensland, before Covid and subsequent lockdowns and border controls thwarted his ambitions and forced him to return home.

The magistrate told the court that it was a shame that someone with such evident ability had turned to offending.

He said 69g was a “significant amount of cannabis to have”.

He said drug dealing and drug use was a “depressing, miserable way to spend your youth”.

Abouri had “a great deal of talent and potential,” he said, and added that “I don’t want to burden you with a criminal conviction.”

Abouri was fined a total of $1500 without conviction.