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FORMER £16,000-a-week footballer Garry O’Connor has moved into a council house with his family.

It is thought they pay £65 a week in rent for the terraced property.

The family’s modest lifestyle is a far cry from O’Connor’s heyday when he earned a fortune, lived in a £1.3million mansion and drove a £100,000 Ferrari.

The move to the Law View estate in North Berwick, East Lothian, is the latest twist in the rise and fall of the former Scotland and Hibs star.

In a career marred by drug scandals, court appearances, debt problems and professional humiliation, O’Connor has gone from hero to zero.

At one time, he was courted by top clubs. But he last played for third-tier Morton. And they released

him after club chirman Douglas Rae branded him lazy and out of shape.

O’Connor, from Edinburgh, began his career with Hibs.

The player, who has 16 caps for Scotland, landed a big-money transfer to Lokomotiv Moscow in 2006 but did not settle in Russia.

The first major controversy of his career came when he went AWOL before Scotland’s Euro qualifier with Ukraine.

A year later, he got a megabucks move to the English Premier League with Birmingham City.

Since then, his story has been one of unfulfilled potential.

In June 2012, O’Connor was convicted of possessing cocaine.

He was sentenced to community work but landed back in court when he repeatedly failed to turn up.

Shortly afterwards, the player was cleared of a £93,000 insurance fraud after he crashed his Ferrari Spider.

The same year, after moving to Siberia to play, O’Connor suffered a £350,000 loss when he sold his £1.3million five-bedroom house in the exclusive Archerfield estate in East Lothian for £950,000.

Last year, it was revealed that O’Connor owed large debts to creditors and that he had put a trust deed in place in a bid to avoid bankruptcy.

And earlier this year, he was taken to court by Bank of Scotland who wanted to seize his previous home in Longniddry.

East Lothian Council’s decision to allocate a house on the newly built Law View estate to O’Connor, wife Lisa and their three children, has angered some neighbours.

Irene Galloway, of Law Residents Group, said: “The area is a lovely, modern council estate. But there’s a lot of anger here that people from outside North Berwick have moved into the home.

“Local folk who didn’t get them aren’t happy.”