Former GAA star DJ Carey has been told by a judge to expect a custodial sentence, after defrauding friends, family and fans of more than \u20ac394,000 to treat a cancer he never had.<\/p>\n
The ex-Kilkenny hurler, 54, was remanded in custody on Friday after a sentencing hearing at Dublin Criminal Courts of Justice and will return to court to hear his sentence on Monday.<\/p>\n
He pleaded guilty in July to 10 counts of inducing people to give him money after fraudulently claiming to have cancer.<\/p>\n
The court also heard details of another eight cases which were to be taken into consideration for sentencing.<\/p>\n
In total Carey was given \u20ac394,127 and $13,000, of which, he repaid \u20ac44,203.<\/p>\n
Prosecuting counsel Dominic McGinn told the court the former player carried out a \u201cseries of deceptions\u201d as he outlined the details of each count against Carey.<\/p>\n
The court heard how garda\u00ed were first alerted to Carey\u2019s crimes by a financial institution, when one of their customers who was \u201cgetting on in years\u201d tried to transfer money to him.<\/p>\n
Carey told his victims he needed treatment in Seattle, in the US, for cancer, telling several that his status as an \u201celite athlete\u201d meant he would receive some free treatment but needed help with travel, additional treatment and living costs.<\/p>\n
Among those he defrauded was billionaire businessman Denis O\u2019Brien who gave him \u20ac125,182 and $13,000, none of which has been repaid.<\/p>\n
He also provided use of a house and a car for a period of time.<\/p>\n
The court heard they first met on a golf trip to South Africa in 1997 and often played together when Carey was living on the Mount Juliet Estate, where Mr O\u2019Brien also had a house.<\/p>\n
Carey had told him he owed the bank AIB \u201ca substantial amount of money\u201d, and asked for help with cancer treatment.<\/p>\n
When Mr O\u2019Brien\u2019s accountant, Ann Foley, asked for a medical letter, he provided two, which appeared to be from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Centre in Seattle.<\/p>\n
When garda\u00ed contacted the centre they said they had no record of him ever being treated there.<\/p>\n
In a victim impact statement read to the court Mr O\u2019Brien said: \u201cTo my embarrassment I was completely duped by DJ Carey.\u201d He said for someone \u201cto claim they have cancer is unconscionable\u201d, describing Carey as \u201cextraordinarily deceitful, manipulative and cunning\u201d who \u201ccame back time and time again over a long number of years\u201d.<\/p>\n
Carey also received \u20ac120,000 from Tom Brennan, a consultant involved in the development of oncology drugs.<\/p>\n
Both men had attended St Kieran\u2019s College in Kilkenny at different times.<\/p>\n
Mr Brennan agreed to lend the money and the pair signed a repayment plan but when Carey failed to repay the sum, Mr Brennan challenged him about his illness and his travel to Seattle.<\/p>\n
He then took a civil claim against Carey, which he won, although the money has not yet been repaid.<\/p>\n
Carey told a number of his victims he would pay them back from compensation of more than a million euro he was due to receive from the Health Service Executive (HSE), telling one person he had an \u201cexcessive dose of radiation\u201d during his treatment at St James\u2019 Hospital in Dublin.<\/p>\n
Detective Sergeant Michael Bourke confirmed to the court that when garda\u00ed investigated they found \u201cno record of any claim made by Mr Carey\u201d.<\/p>\n
Carey told another victim he was suffering from the same type of cancer, multiple myeloma, as his wife.<\/p>\n
On December 14 2022 garda\u00ed obtained search warrants in relation to Mr Carey\u2019s hotel room and car.<\/p>\n
They court heard when they knocked at his room at the Hoban Hotel in Kilkenny Mr Carey handed over his car keys, phone and Pin number.<\/p>\n
His phone was examined and a \u201clarge quantity of data\u201d was recovered including text messages with victims referring to his cancer and his treatment in Seattle along with messages containing excuses as to why the money wasn\u2019t repaid.<\/p>\n
In mitigation, defence counsel Colman Cody said Carey\u2019s guilty plea prevented a \u201clengthy and complex\u201d trial taking place.<\/p>\n
He also said Carey had suffered a \u201cstunning fall from grace\u201d and was now \u201csomething of a pariah\u201d.<\/p>\n
He added he was the subject of \u201csome humiliation and ridicule\u201d including images circulated online of Mr Carey in a hospital bed \u201chooked up to a mobile phone\u201d cable describing them as \u201ccompletely fake and false\u201d that did not emanate from the investigation.<\/p>\n
He described how Carey lived a \u201ctransient life\u201d after his house was repossessed and his relationship broke down describing him as \u201ceffectively of no fixed abode\u201d and sometimes living in his car.<\/p>\n
He also said Carey wanted to \u201coffer heartfelt and sincere apology\u201d to his victims and that he suffered from a chronic heart condition that requires ongoing treatment.<\/p>\n
Judge Martin Nolan said all of the injured parties should be \u201ccomplimented\u201d, adding \u201cthey may feel foolish\u201d but were \u201cgenuinely good people who responded to Carey \u201cin a very generous way in his hour of need\u201d.<\/p>\n
One of those who was in court to deliver a victim impact statement was Thomas Butler, who gave Carey more than \u20ac16,000.<\/p>\n
He described it as \u201cgut-wrenching\u201d that Carey had used cancer to obtain the money because both his parents had died of the disease.<\/p>\n
He also added he had suffered \u201cdistress and mental torment\u201d because Carey\u2019s trial had been due to take place over the period his daughter was getting married.<\/p>\n
There was a large media presence inside and outside the court where Carey, who wore a purple blazer, blue shirt and multicolour tie, sat expressionless throughout the hearing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former GAA star DJ Carey has been told by a judge to expect a custodial sentence, after defrauding…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156046,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[4488,27,18,19,17,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-156045","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-irish-examiner-instagram","9":"tag-courts","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115471024353538954","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}