{"id":119640,"date":"2025-11-03T16:37:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T16:37:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/119640\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T16:37:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T16:37:09","slug":"former-kilkenny-hurler-dj-carey-jailed-for-five-and-a-half-years-for-reprehensible-fraud-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/119640\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Kilkenny hurler DJ Carey jailed for five and a half years for \u2018reprehensible\u00a0fraud\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Kilkenny<\/a> hurling great DJ Carey<\/a> has been jailed for an effective five and a half years for inducing 22 people to give him about \u20ac400,000 to fund treatment for cancer that he did not have.<\/p>\n

Judge Martin Nolan said he \u201ccould not imagine a more reprehensible fraud than to tell people you have cancer and extort money on that basis\u201d.<\/p>\n

Probably the only other one on that level would be to deceive very elderly people, the judge told the Circuit Criminal Court hearing in Dublin. <\/p>\n

Carey (54), of The Drive, Newtown, Maynooth, Co Kildare<\/a>, pleaded guilty to 10 charges last July. <\/p>\n

The judge said Carey had pleaded guilty to offences involving deception, he claimed he had cancer and needed treatment in the US, the chosen hospital was in Seattle. He had also claimed he had a civil action against HSE and anticipated a positive outcome and would repay money from that.<\/p>\n

Carey promised all the injured parties the money would be repaid but it turned out he did not have cancer and had not sued the HSE and there would be no proceeds from that, the judge said. <\/p>\n

It seems most of the money Carey received was not repaid and he probably gained about \u20ac349,000, the judge said.<\/p>\n

This was a \u201cvery low\u201d fraud involving advantage of people\u2019s good nature and good will towards him, the judge said. Carey had exploited the good nature of others and the goodwill due to his being well known and an outstanding sportsman.<\/p>\n

The weakness that most fraudsters seek to exploit is greed but that was not the case here, he said, noting that Carey exploited the good nature of these people, knew a lot of them, they knew him and they had good regard for him. He had persuaded them he needed the money urgently and would repay them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a very serious matter, it is reprehensible and very bad behaviour.\u201d<\/p>\n

All the parties who gave money \u201cmust have looked in the mirror and thought \u2018how foolish I am\u2019 but what Carey had done was that he had exploited them for being good people\u201d, the judge said.<\/p>\n

The maximum sentence on each of the 10 counts at issue was five years but the court had to take into account the criminal behaviour and mitigation, including Carey\u2019s pleas of guilty last July to 10 charges. \u201cAll pleas in white collar criminal cases are valuable,\u201d the judge said. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0How DJ Carey went from hurling great to convicted fraudsterOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Carey also demonstrated a certain level of co-operation with garda\u00ed and had made some admissions although not at formal interview, the judge noted. <\/p>\n

He has no previous convictions and has some work history and will probably not reoffend in the future although the court cannot be certain, the judge said.<\/p>\n

He was a formidable sportsman in hurling and handball, probably one of the best hurlers ever, he noted.<\/p>\n

By reason of what Carey did, he has been subject of public odium and ridicule, his reputation had been destroyed and his good name will probably never recover, the judge said. On his release from prison, he will probably have a tough life, he added.<\/p>\n

The judge also noted Carey has a heart condition and received treatment.<\/p>\n

He said it was hard to know what motivated Carey but what he did was \u201cgrossly wrong\u201d.<\/p>\n

Some of his victims lost a lot of money and whole other parties lost less significant sums, they may not have been able to afford those. The judge also supposed they lost a certain amount of belief in human nature too. <\/p>\n

He was impressed by Thomas Butler, who gave Carey more than \u20ac16,000, and read his own victim impact report, he said.<\/p>\n

The judge set a headline sentence of eight to 10 years for Carey\u2019s \u201cglobal misbehaviour\u201d, which he reduced due to Carey\u2019s guilty plea and other mitigating factors. <\/p>\n

He imposed concurrent sentences of five years, four years and 1.5 years in relation to his pleas, making an effective sentence of five and a half years. He could not imagine a \u201cmore reprehensible fraud\u201d, the judge concluded.<\/p>\n

Of a total \u20ac394,127 and US$13,000 received by Carey, \u20ac44,200 was repaid, leaving \u20ac349,927 and US$13,000 outstanding.<\/p>\n

Carey\u2019s victims included businessman Denis O\u2019Brien, who said in a victim impact statement that he had believed Carey\u2019s cancer claim. Over eight years from 2014, Mr O\u2019Brien advanced him about \u20ac125,000 and US$13,000, including repaying a \u20ac60,000 sum Carey owed to AIB. Mr O\u2019Brien also gave Carey the use of the apartment and a car when he was in Dublin.<\/p>\n

Carey, the court heard, provided false documents to Mr O\u2019Brien and his financial adviser in support of his false cancer claim.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Halfway through the account of DJ Carey\u2019s career as a swindler, the atmosphere changedOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

What Carey did was \u201cextraordinarily deceitful, manipulative and cunning\u201d, Mr O\u2019Brien said. \u201cTo my embarrassment, I was completely duped by DJ Carey.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Butler, an accountant who gave Carey more than \u20ac16,000 from his pension, said the fact the former hurler used cancer as a means to obtain money under a false pretence \u201cwas gut wrenching personally for me as both my parents died of cancer\u201d.<\/p>\n

Carey\u2019s counsel Colman Cody said the former star\u2019s \u201cdescent into shame\u201d was as \u201cmeteoric\u201d as was his rise to sporting greatness and he is now essentially of no fixed abode.<\/p>\n

As there was no immediate prospect of repaying those affected, all Carey could do was offer a sincere and heartfelt apology, counsel said.<\/p>\n

Carey has a genuine heart condition, Mr Cody added.<\/p>\n

A Garda investigation into Carey\u2019s cancer claim began after a bank worker became suspicious in summer 2022 when an older woman customer sought to transfer money to Carey.<\/p>\n

As a result of information from banks, garda\u00ed put together a series of deceptions over time.<\/p>\n

In December 2022, garda\u00ed got warrants to search Carey\u2019s home, a hotel room in Co Kilkenny, and his car. From phone data, they found references to cancer and to having to go to Seattle for treatment, along with messages revealing numerous excuses for non-payment of money, often saying he was in Seattle or blaming banks for money not going through.<\/p>\n

Garda\u00ed also found letters purporting to be from the Fred Hutchinson cancer centre in Seattle but, when contacted, it had no record of a patient named Denis or DJ Carey.<\/p>\n

On December 14th 2022, Carey told garda\u00ed he had been sick in 2012 with a heart-wall virus and, at that time, made up a story he was sick with cancer to buy time because he had a substantial debt with AIB. He admitted he had never been sick with cancer and never sought treatment for that.<\/p>\n

Among 10 charges admitted last July by Carey was that he, dishonestly and by deception, induced Mr O\u2019Brien to give him money to pay for cancer treatment on unknown dates between January 2014 and September 2022.<\/p>\n

He pleaded guilty to the same offence, on different unknown dates, mainly in 2021 and 2022, in relation to Owen and Ann Conway; Mark and Sharon Kelly; Aidan Mulligan; his cousin Edwin Carey; Jeffrey Howes; former Clare hurler Tony Griffin and Christy Browne and publican Aonghus Leydon. <\/p>\n

The same offence was admitted in relation to Mr Butler on unknown dates between 2019 and 2022, and regarding publican Noel Tynan on unknown dates between 2017 and 2022.<\/p>\n

Among 10 charges taken into consideration, one related to Tom Brennan, who went to the same school as Carey, St Ciaran\u2019s in Kilkenny. Carey contacted Mr Brennan in 2020 seeking \u20ac120,000 to clear a debt with AIB and claiming he was due a medical negligence payment.<\/p>\n

Mr Brennan paid Carey \u20ac120,000 on the understanding that would be repaid but, despite taking legal proceedings, Mr Brennan remains unpaid.<\/p>\n

Some of the charges taken into consideration involved people who were fully repaid the sums advanced to Carey. Those included Peadar Hughes, who knew Carey through handball and was repaid \u20ac3,000; Donal Carroll who was repaid \u20ac10,000 and Brendan Fleming, repaid \u20ac14,000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Kilkenny hurling great DJ Carey has been jailed for an effective five and a half years for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119070,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[45,42852,61,60,12969,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-119640","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-an-garda-siochana","9":"tag-dj-carey","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-kilkenny","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}