Kilkenny hurling legend DJ Carey has been jailed for 5-and-a-half years after he pleaded guilty to 10 counts of defrauding friends and associates of over 300,000 after claiming he had cancer and needed hospital treatment in Seattle.
Denis Carey was jailed this afternoon before the Circuit Criminal Court by Judge Martin Nolan who described his offending as “gain by deception”.
He described how Carey, who spent the weekend in jail on remand, had claimed that he was to benefit from a fictitious claim against the HSE and that he had used this to ensure his “good natured” victims that the money would be repaid, much of which never was.
Judge Nolan said that Carey had gained in the region of 343,000 and that he had “exploited” his reputation as an “outstanding sporting personality” to prey upon the kindness of those he targeted.
“The fraud itself is very very low” in nature, he said adding that he used fraud to advantage of people who had “good will” towards him.
He said that “criminal parties” usually prey upon the “greed” of their targets when it comes to fraud, but that Carey had “exploited the good” in those he took advantage of.
He described the fraud as a “very serious matter” and “reprehensible behaviour” which would have left the victims feeling, “How foolish am I?”
” They were good natured people who wanted to help a person in,” he said, hearkening back to his comments made last Friday on how those who were taken in by Carey were to be “commended” for their willingness to help someone they believed to be in need.
Taking into account Carey’s late guilty plea, his lack of previous convictions, and the “public odium and ridicule” he has faced, the court set a “global” headline sentence of 8-10 years before reducing this to 4 years on count 2 and 18 months on count 3 of the indictment.
Judge Nolan commented that it was, “very hard to know what motivated him” in his “grossly wrong” conduct which was a “betrayal” to those affected.
He said that after release, Carey will “probably” lead “a tough life”, and acknowledged that he does suffer from “some underlying health conditions”.
Case background
You can read the full breakdown of DJ Carey’s offending in Gript’s long form court report from last Friday here.