“A final comment,” said Judge Martin Nolan before DJ Carey turned to go. “I couldn’t imagine a more reprehensible fraud than to tell people you had cancer and to extort money from them on that basis.”
That’s what it all came down to in the end. All the years, all the rumours and all the stories, the whole elaborate cobweb of fantasy that Carey had constructed around his life, it was all reduced to brass tacks now. He had taken almost €400,000 from people under false pretences and now he was going to jail for 5½ years.
On a busy day in Court 5, DJ Carey was nobody special. He wasn’t even DJ. At 1.06pm, after a hectic morning during which 32 cases had passed through the court, Judge Nolan announced there was a sentencing matter to be dealt with before lunch. The clerk called for Denis Carey to come to the box.
The five-time All-Ireland winner arrived in the suit he’d worn to court on Friday, this time without a tie. He stood behind the glass and listened impassively for the nine minutes it took Judge Nolan to deliver his sentence.
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He kept his hands clasped in front of him and looked at the judge throughout. He was asked nothing and he said nothing. There was nothing left to say.
“He took advantage of people’s good nature and goodwill towards him,” said Judge Nolan. “He exploited the good natures of others and the goodwill he had accumulated by reason of being well-known and being an outstanding sporting personality.
“In most of the frauds that this court hears, the weakness most fraudsters seek to exploit is greed. This is not the case here. Mr Carey exploited the good nature of people. He knew a lot of these people, if not all of these people, and they knew him.
“They had good regard for him and he persuaded them that he needed these monies. He promised to return the monies and obviously he knew at the time that he would never return the monies.
“So it’s a very serious crime. It’s reprehensible behaviour, it’s very bad behaviour. And I think all parties who gave monies to Mr Carey must have looked at themselves in the mirror and thought, ‘How foolish am I?’ But they were good-natured people who wanted to help a person in need and he exploited them.”
The court was packed. Journalists, legal folk, members of the public – DJ Carey’s life has always been a rubberneckers’ gala. A small contingent from a school tour tried to slip in the back, but by now you’d have needed those passenger pushers they employ on the Tokyo subway to get any more in.
Everyone listened as the judge went through the various mitigations put forward by Carey’s defence. There was a guilty plea – “a late plea is still a plea” was the slightly faint praise Judge Nolan gave to Carey on that front. There was a certain level of co-operation with gardaí. He has no previous convictions, he has a work history, he has contributed to society. He will probably not reoffend, although the court can’t know that for sure.
“He was probably one of the best-known hurlers ever,” Judge Nolan said.
“Obviously by reason of what he did, he has been the subject of public odium and ridicule. His reputation has been destroyed and obviously his good name will probably never recover. He’s still in his 50s and when he is released from prison he will have to face that and it will probably be a tough life for him.”
Through it all, the eyes of just about everyone present were trained on Carey to see if there’d be a reaction. But he was never likely to give them anything to grab on to.
[ How Carey went from hurling great to convicted fraudsterOpens in new window ]
He has lived his life in the public gaze since he was a teenager. If the last thing a boxer loses is his punch, an ability to stand in the spotlight without flinching might be the last thing Carey has going for him.
“So, what to do about him?” pondered Judge Nolan aloud. “I think if I was to set a headline sentence for his global misbehaviour, I would say somewhere in the region of eight to 10 years as a starting point.
“Mitigating factors have been identified so he’s entitled to a reduction. The sentence I am going to impose upon him is a term of imprisonment of 5½ years. On count two, I will impose a sentence of four years. On count four, a sentence of 18 months.”
And that was that. All that was left was for Judge Nolan to deliver his “reprehensible fraud” line and it was over. The court started to clear for lunch, the judge said he’d sit again at two o’clock.
Carey turned to his left, slightly unsure of what was supposed to happen next. The couple of gardaí who were behind the glass in the witness box with him guided him by the elbow and walked him back out the door he’d arrived through. His life in tatters, his reputation demolished.
His fall from grace complete.
