Former Irish hurling star DJ Carey has been jailed after ‘exploiting the good nature of people’ to con almost £350,000.
The 54-year-old ex-Kilkenny player was given a five-and-a-half-year prison sentence today in Dublin following a cancer fraud.
He had previously pleaded guilty to 10 counts of inducing people to give him money after fraudulently claiming he had cancer.
The hurler, described as one of the best in the game, had allegedly sent an image to victims showing him lying on a bed with an iPhone charging cable taped to his nose, pretending it was an oxygen tube.
Judge Martin Nolan said that Carey ‘exploited the good nature of people’ instead of appealing to the weakness of humans, which is what fraudsters tend to do.
He said the people who fell for his fraud were ‘good-natured people who wanted to help a person in need.’
Carey was said to have tricked his victims into making a payment to him between 2014 and 2022 after saying he needed money to fund cancer treatment.
Among the victims the All-Ireland winner conned is the Irish billionaire Denis O’Brien.
Mr O’Brien handed him over £109,500 (€125,000), along with helping him with accommodation and travel.
In total, Carey defrauded 22 people out of almost £350,000 (€400,000).
He has repaid around £38,500.
Judge Nolan said it was ‘very hard to know what motivated Mr Carey,’ but since pleading guilty he has been subjected to ‘public odium and ridicule’ and that his ‘good name will probably never recover.’
Carey stood motionless with his hands clasped in front of him and wearing the same clothes he had on when taken into custody on Friday as the judge told the court is likely to face a tough life when is released from prison.
His defence said he had suffered a fall from grace and had become a pariah.
During his career with Kilkenny, which spanned from the late 1980s until his retirement in 2006, Carey went on to win five All-Ireland titles and nine All-Star Awards.
He was hailed as an idol for young players and a legend of the Gaelic game with 14th-century origins.
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