Former Kilkenny hurler, DJ Carey has been told he faces an inevitable prison sentence for defrauding people by falsely claiming he needed money for cancer treatment.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard he defrauded twenty two people between 2014 and 2022 out of a total of almost €400,000. Only €44,200 has been repaid.
Carey, who the court was told, is of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty in July to ten counts of dishonestly inducing people to pay him money for cancer treatment.
A number of further counts are being taken into consideration by the court.
His defence counsel told the court, Carey who is now 54, had suffered a remarkable stunning fall from grace and was now something of a pariah.
Colman Cody said Carey had transcended sport, and even people with only a passing interest knew who he was. But he said all of that respect and affection was now gone.
Businessman Denis O'Brien gave Carey more than €125,000 as well as $13,000 and paid for accommodation and transport for him. None of the money has been repaid.
In a victim impact statement Mr O’Brien said what Carey had done was unconscionable as well as extraordinarily deceitful, manipulative and cunning.
Mr O’Brien said when someone comes to you to tell you they were seriously ill with cancer, and asks for help, you do not question their bona fides.
He said the help he provided was not a one-off donation and Carey came back time and time again over a long number of years.
He said he took advantage of his friendship.
Mr O’Brien said he had received hundreds of requests over the past thirty years and had never been defrauded by anyone. But he said, he was completely duped by DJ Carey.
Watch: DJ Carey arriving at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin
Thomas Butler, who got to know Carey through work, as well as an interest in golf and GAA, gave him just over €16,000.
He told the court he never imagined that it would lead to six years of embarrassment in the public eye and constant references to him by people who were shocked he had given him money.
He said it was gut wrenching that Carey used cancer as a means to obtain money under a false pretence as both his parents had died of cancer.
He said he was made to look very stupid or very naïve.
Mr Butler said he had five children and had never had spare money to give them when they were growing up but he had given Carey money out of his pension lump sum.
He said he was a true Kilkenny supporter and he was not comfortable writing the victim impact statement but he said it had to be done to ensure Carey no longer took advantage of other innocent individuals.
The court heard one of the victims was a distant cousin of Carey’s. Some were friends for many years, some were acquaintances and some were work colleagues.
Kirwan gave statement during cancer treatment
Margaret and Ger Kirwan gave Carey €4,000 after he told them he was suffering from the same type of cancer as Ms Kirwan.
The court was told Ms Kirwan had to give a statement to gardaí in the middle of her own cancer treatment.
The €4000 euro was eventually paid back.
Tom Brennan who had been in the same school as Carey gave him €120,000. He eventually obtained a judgment against him in the civil courts but the money has not been repaid.
The court heard Carey told most of his victims that he was receiving treatment in Seattle in the US and needed funds for treatment.
In some cases, he told them he was due a payout from the HSE for a negligence case he claimed he had taken against St James’ hospital in Dublin.
Sergeant Michael Bourke told prosecuting counsel, Dominic McGinn that a Seattle hospital Carey claimed to have been treated in had no record of him ever being treated there.
His GP had no record of him every having cancer.
There was no record of any outstanding claim against the HSE or the hospital, and he had not travelled to the US since 2015.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
Carey admitted he made up story about being sick
When Carey was questioned in December 2022, he admitted he had made up the story about being sick with cancer to buy himself time as he had a substantial debt with AIB and that he had asked people for financial help.
Gardaí recovered a large amount of data from his mobile phone showing text messages to victims seeking financial assistance, referring to cancer and having to travel to Seattle and giving excuses for not repaying money.
Mr Cody said Carey had attained the highest accolades and honours one could achieve in sport but the esteem in which he had been held had been replaced by notoriety, shame, ridicule and derision.
He was something of a pariah he said, which he said was a remarkable and stunning trajectory in light of everything he had achieved.
Carey had succumbed to financial difficulties in 2012 and told gardaí he had fallen into a rut.
Mr Cody said he knew there were legitimate ways he could have reached out to get help but he did not do it.
He described certain online images of Carey purporting to show him in a bed hooked up to a mobile phone as completely fake and false.
The court heard Carey had resorted to sleeping in his car on some occasions and was currently unemployed and of no fixed abode.
Mr Cody told the court there was no immediate prospect of restitution because of Carey’s circumstances and he wanted to offer a heartfelt, sincere apology to every victim.
He said Carey was suffering from a chronic heart condition and had suffered from pain and difficulties over the weekend leading to his attendance in hospital earlier in the week.
He said his client was highly unlikely to come before the court in the future. He submitted that going to prison was an enormous punishment and urged the court not to impose a disproportionate sentence.
Judge Nolan said he would impose his sentence on Monday. He told Carey a custodial term was inevitable.
The judge added that he knew the injured parties in this case may feel foolish and taken advantage of.
But he said they were genuinely good people who responded to Carey in a very generous way in what they thought was his hour of need.
He said the court applauded them for their generosity.
The maximum sentence for each count faced by Carey is five years in prison.
