"I was completely duped" - Kildare based DJ Carey's court hearing hears dramatic statement from tycoon Denis O'Brien

By Eimear Dodd

A judge has warned former hurley star DJ Carey, who lives in Kildare,  that a custodial sentence is inevitable for defrauding almost €400,000 from a number of people while pretending to have cancer.

Judge Martin Nolan made the comment after hearing the facts in the case today. He remanded Carey (54) into custody until Monday when sentence will be imposed.

Denis 'DJ' Carey had been due to be sentenced on Wednesday, but the hearing was adjourned to today after the court was told he was attending Portiuncula University Hospital, Ballinasloe in Galway.

Carey, dressed in a plum-coloured tartan blazer, dark coloured trousers, a blue striped shirt and patterned tie, sat in the dock while the facts of the case were outlined in a packed courtroom.

Dominic McGinn SC, prosecuting, told the court the guilty pleas to 10 counts of dishonestly inducing people to pay money were representative of Carey's overall offending. The court was asked to take another 10 counts into consideration.

The court heard in total that the former GAA star defrauded €394,127 and $13,000 US dollars from the injured parties. €44,200 has been repaid, leaving €349,927 and $13,000 US dollars outstanding.

Carey, with an address before the court of The Drive, Newtown, Maynooth, Co Kildare, told some of the injured parties that he had cancer and needed money as he was undergoing treatment in Seattle. He asked for loans from most of the injured parties and most of the money he obtained was not repaid.

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Some of the injured parties had been friendly with Carey, while others were aware of him through sport, the court was told.

When gardai checked, the Fred Hutch Cancer Center in Seattle confirmed that Carey had never been a patient there.

He also told some injured parties that he was due a payment from the HSE for a medical claim of over €1 million in relation to treatment at St James’ Hospital.

Detective Sergeant Mike Bourke gave evidence that there are no records of a claim by Carey against the HSE or that he was treated at St James’ Hospital. Enquiries also confirmed that Carey has not travelled to the United States since 2015 and his medical records, which he allowed gardai to access, had nothing in relation to cancer treatment.

The 10 counts Carey pleaded guilty to involved a total of 13 complainants, including Denis O'Brien, Owen and Ann Conway, Mark and Sharon Kelly, Aidan Mulligan, Tony Griffin and Christy Browne, Thomas Butler, Jeffrey Howes, Noel Tynan, Edwin Carey and Aonghus Leydon.

Judge Nolan said the court considered a custodial sentence to be “inevitable”.

He said the court complimented and applauded all of the injured parties, adding that he thought they should not feel foolish.

“They may feel taken advantage of, but they were genuinely good people and good souls who responded to Mr Carey in a generous way in what they thought was his hour of need”.

Two victim impact statements were read to the court during the hearing.

One from businessman Denis O'Brien was read by prosecuting junior counsel Simon Matthews BL. Mr O'Brien was defrauded of a total of €125,182 by Carey.

The businessman said when someone tells you they are seriously ill with cancer and asks for your help, “you do not question their bona fides”.

He said the claim of having cancer was “unconscionable” and described Carey's actions as “extraordinarily deceitful, manipulative and cunning”.

“I believed him,” Mr O'Brien, noting that this was not once-off and that Carey came back to him time and time again over a period of years asking for financial help.

“He completely took advantage of my friendship,” the businessman said, noting he and others in his office gave “significant support” to Carey.

“Over the past 30 years, I've received hundreds of requests from people and organisations seeking assistance. I've never been defrauded by anyone.

“To my embarrassment, I was completely duped by DJ Carey”.

The court heard that Mr O'Brien met Carey in 1997 during a golf trip to South Africa.

The pair developed a friendship and in 2014, Carey asked Mr O'Brien for financial assistance, saying he needed to travel to Seattle for treatment for a rare form of cancer.

Carey said he was classified as an elite athlete as he won a national handball competition in the United States and his treatment was paid for, but he needed to cover other costs.

Mr O'Brien agreed to pay money to cover treatment, travel and living costs, as well as to provide accommodation and car for Carey to use while he was in Dublin.

Between December 2014 and June 2020, the businessman gave Carey a total of €125,182 and $13,000 US dollars, none of which has been repaid. 

During this period, Mr O'Brien's accountant Ann Foley asked Carey for a letter from his doctor about his medical condition. He gave her two letters in 2014 and 2015,  purporting to be from a doctor at the Fred Hutch Cancer Center in Seattle. Both letters were fake, the court heard.

Mr O'Brien also agreed to help Carey to repay an outstanding loan of €60,000 to AIB, and a repayment plan was arranged, with Carey telling the businessman and Ms Foley that he was due a payout from the HSE.

Another victim impact statement was read to the court by Thomas Butler, an accountant who became friendly with Carey through work.

Mr Butler gave a total of €16,360 to Carey, after the hurler told him he needed treatment in the United States.

Evidence was heard that he genuinely believed Carey was in serious ill health. He also helped to draft emails and letters, intended to approach businesses asking for financial assistance for Carey. This process did not go ahead, the court heard and no money was repaid to Mr Butler.

Mr Butler said Carey took advantage of the fact that he is “regarded as a very generous individual”.

He said the deception made him look like a “very stupid or a very naive individual”.

Mr Butler said he was uncomfortable writing the statement as a Kilkenny supporter, “and any negative reflection it may have on the county due to DJ’s actions but it has to be done to ensure he no longer takes advantage of other innocent individuals”.

Carey was voluntarily interviewed by gardai in December 2022. He said he wanted to buy himself time as he owed a substantial debt to AIB and he asked people for financial help while pretending to be sick. He said he had never been sick and never sought treatment abroad.

Carey has no previous convictions and has not come to garda attention since.

Det Sgt Bourke agreed with Colman Cody SC, defending, that his client was co-operative with the investigation and made admissions during a voluntary interview with gardai in December 2022.

It was further accepted that Carey has a genuine history of a heart condition, which required surgery.

Mr Cody said his client was a “person of a certain reputation” who has become “a figure of some humiliation and ridicule” including “certain online images” of Carey “purporting to show him in hospital bed hooked up to a mobile phone” which circulated online “as a way of deriding Carey”.

These are “fake and false”, counsel said, but “reflect the position he found himself in, a subject of ridicule”.

Mr Cody said his client's offending was “planned, calculated and repeated”.

He asked the court to consider the situation in which Carey found himself at the time, living a “transient lifestyle”, with periods sleeping in his car and not working.

Counsel said his client had “suffered a stunning fall from grace” and had “already suffered significantly by virtue of the ignominy and derision in which he is held”.

Mr Cody said his client has asked him “to offer a heartfelt and sincere apology” to all of the injured parties.

The court heard that one count of deception - dishonestly inducing a person to pay him money - was being struck out while the remainder of the indictment would be taken into consideration by the sentencing judge.

The indictment includes two counts of using a false instrument with the intention of inducing another to accept it as genuine. The indictment spans a time period from 2014 to 2022.

Carey is regarded as one of the greatest hurlers to have played the game, winning five All-Ireland senior medals with Kilkenny. He captained the county to Liam MacCarthy Cup success in 2003, while also being part of the victorious teams in 1992, 1993, 2000 and 2002.

He was named Hurler of the Year in 2000 and won nine All-Star awards. Since retiring from play, he has managed the Kilkenny U21 hurlers and was a selector for the county senior team.