Man awarded payout for leaving school illiterate becomes self-confessed crook
By
A Current Affair
Beau Abela won an almost $1 million payout from the Victorian Government because he couldn't read or write when he left school. Now he's 22, unemployed and has found himself on the wrong side of the law.
FTBA
A Victorian man who received almost $1 million after leaving school illiterate has become a self-confessed car thief even though he was given a car as part of his government pay-out.
Despite sitting on a small fortune, Beau Abela, 22, pleaded guilty to stealing a $2000 Nissan from a central Melbourne car park earlier this year.
Abela first came to national prominence 10 years ago when his father, Peter, launched unprecedented legal action against the Victorian Education Department.
"They owe him an education, a standard. Every child should be able to walk out of a school and be able to have the opportunity to go for an apprenticeship, to go for a job interview," Peter Abela said in 2007.
The father and son duo took their case all the way to the Federal Court, where a judge ruled the education department had in fact failed Abela.
Peter Abela and Beau when they launched the unprecedented legal action in 2007 (Source: A Current Affair)
However, the mega-cash windfall has not kept him out of trouble.
"I'm trying my hardest," Abela told
A Current Affair.
"It's hard for someone who can't read and write."
On top of everything, Abela also claims to have struggled with drugs.
"I've done drugs, I've f---ing shot up, I've done everything."
Beau Abela, 22, is yet to find employment despite being awarded a near $1 million settlement for leaving school illiterate (Source: A Current Affair)
Psychologist Dr Kaylene Evers believes years of drawn out legal action may have caused Abela significant trauma.
"He has a lot of time on his hands and at a very critical age he was awarded a car, for heaven's sake. Not just cash, but a car. This is a tangible reward for a young man at that stage of life," Dr Evers said.
"At 14 years of age this child was put in the media spotlight and put through a series of battles in a court room and assessed unmercilessly within that context, and that traumatises him."
Abela told
A Current Affair he is currently completing a mechanics course at TAFE.
© Nine Digital Pty Ltd 2016
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