DJ Carey’s five-and-a-half-year prison sentence over a “reprehensible” cancer fraud underlines the increasing willingness of the courts to impose custodial sentences for fraud and forgery offences.
When jailing the former Kilkenny hurler at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on Monday, Judge Martin Nolan slammed the nature of Carey’s offending.
Most fraud cases seek to exploit people’s greed but, in extorting almost €400,000 from 22 people to fund treatment for a cancer he did not have, Carey was exploiting their good nature, the judge said.
Before the landmark case of businessman Paul Begley in 2012, white collar crimes did not traditionally attract prison sentences.
Begley was jailed by Judge Nolan for six years after avoiding paying customs duty on more than 1,000 tonnes of Chinese garlic by having it labelled as apples. Begley, the judge said, engaged in a “grave” and “huge” tax evasion scheme.
The sentence was reduced to two years on appeal, for reasons including Begley’s co-operation with the investigation, repayment of the €1.6 million tax owed and admission of tax evasion.
In 2014, businessman Breifne O’Brien was jailed for seven years by Judge Patricia Ryan at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for dishonestly inducing five people to advance millions of euro to him for investment in bogus property deals and a bogus linen shipping insurance scheme.
O’Brien, with an address at Monkstown Grove, Monkstown, Co Dublin, admitted 14 sample counts of making a gain or causing a loss by deception or theft of about €8.5 million between 2003 and 2008.
In what was described in court as “a classic pyramid scheme”, he used money from friends and acquaintances for investment in property and businesses in Ireland and abroad for himself.
[ ‘His good name will probably never recover’: DJ Carey begins 5½ years in prisonOpens in new window ]
O’Brien’s appeal over the severity of his sentence was dismissed. When adjudicated bankrupt in 2016 on his own petition, it was estimated he owed €40 million.
Guidance published in 2022 by the Judicial Council concerning tax and welfare fraud cases is regarded as being a significant influence on sentencing.
That guidance says judges should have regard to sentencing guidelines in a Court of Appeal judgment in a 2018 case, DPP v Maguire, related to fraud and forgery offences over 14 years involving a loss of €1.18 million.
In that decision, the court said a non-custodial sentence was not to be the starting point in any case.
A “rigorous analysis” of the circumstances of the wrongdoer is necessary to devise a just and proportionate sentence, it said. Judicial discretion had a specific role in determining the gravity of the offence, extent of mitigation, and how the pursuit of the recognised objectives of sentencing – including deterrence and rehabilitation – should be balanced in individual cases.
The guidance set specific parameters for appropriate custodial sentences in tax and fraud offences. Offences regarded as in the low range of seriousness may attract a headline sentence of zero to 40 months, it suggested, increasing to 81-120 months for offences in the high range of seriousness. Aggravating factors for the most serious offences could include if the motive was “clearly criminal” or the offence was “carefully planned”.
In 2023, Judge Martin Nolan imposed a two-year sentence on Anne Butterly (66), a former manager of Rush Credit Union, who pleaded guilty to a sample set of charges arising from her theft of approximately €875,405 from the credit union over a seven-year period.
Butterly, who said she took the money to help save her husband’s failing business, had no previous convictions, had since sold the family farm lands and repaid the credit union in full.
Judge Nolan said there was “clear mitigation”, but from the perspective of punishment and deterrence, the nature of the offences required a custodial sentence.
An effective prison term of one year was imposed by Judge Dara Hayes in a separate case in 2023 on David Stamper (68), who pleaded guilty to 82 counts of forgery, theft and money laundering involving Citybus Employees Credit Union over a six-year period.
Stamper, the former chair of its board of directors, misappropriated more than €100,000 from the credit union resulting in its closure in 2019. He submitted in mitigation his efforts to pay back the money and having no previous convictions.
Judge Hayes said a custodial sentence was necessary due to the significant breach of trust and long period of offending. He imposed a sentence of two-and-a-half years, with the last 18 months suspended.
Last June, Mary Higgins (63) of Hawthorn Lane, Castleknock, a bursar of a private secondary school, Mount Sackville Secondary School in Chapelizod, Dublin, was jailed for one year for stealing €500,000 from the school between 2012 and 2017 to fund a gambling addiction.
Judge Orla Crowe said, despite mitigation, including Higgins repaying more than €470,000 from selling her home and signing over her pension, the “egregious breach of trust” had to be marked with a custodial sentence. A three-year sentence was imposed but, due to the substantial mitigation, the final two years were suspended.
