The former Irish ice hockey player, who was involved in an alleged mortgage scam that could have affected at least 30 people, must appear in court next Monday morning on driving charges or a warrant will be issued for her arrest, a judge said today.
Convicted fraudster Catriona Carey, 43, failed to appear in person at Kilkenny District Court this morning to face charges of driving without insurance or a license last December 10 in a 202 KK registered BMW 420.
She was also due to face other driving charges today.
The fees are based on the Road Traffic Act.
At the time of the offenses, Carey had accumulated 12 penalty points for two offenses of speeding and two offenses of driving with a mobile phone.
These resulted in her driving license being revoked for six months from November 8, 2021 to May 8, 2022.
But when the case came up today, a lawyer told Judge Geraldine Carthy that Carey emailed his office yesterday, but there seemed to be some confusion as to who was representing her.
Judge Carthy told him that Carey should appear before her next Monday, May 24, or a warrant would be issued.
Carey, 43, with an address in Weir View Hill in Kilkenny, has been accused of swindling more than 30 people out of thousands of euros after he offered to buy debt from their lenders at a discount.
She runs a company called Careysfort Asset Estates, which is registered in the UK and has been the subject of several complaints to Gardaí.
RTÉ Investigates has reported that around €400,000 was deposited into the company’s account by customers of their company, but only €488.10 remained as of February.
It has been revealed how more than €200,000 deposited by desperate homeowners into a business account controlled by Carey was allegedly spent on personal items and services.
The largest expenditure with funds from the company account occurred on July 21, 2020 for the purchase of a BMW with a price of €55,226.
Gardaí are investigating a number of alleged frauds linked to the activities of a company owned by the Kilkenny woman.
In March, Gardai from the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau (GNECB) impounded the BMW car from a property in Wexford, near Courtown, where Carey had been staying.
A week earlier, Gardaí conducted a search of their Kilkenny home and seized a number of documents.
Carey was convicted of fraud in February 2020 after altering a check she received from a client who hired her as his accountant. She changed a check for €6,948 made out to the Collector General of the Inland Revenue, making it payable on herself instead and cashing it at a bank in Kilkenny.
She received an eight-month suspended sentence.
She was also fined €1,500 in 2008 after knowingly submitting a false invoice to the tax office.
Carey was also convicted of reclaiming sales tax that she was not entitled to in 2006.
Now Gardaí is investigating allegations that she was involved in a mortgage scam that could have affected at least 30 people.
Carey is an accountant and director and owner of Careysfort Asset Estates Ltd.
Through this company, she claimed she could help people in financial need by paying off their debts with a new loan from Careysfort and allowing them to stay in their homes.
Carey wanted an upfront payment and asked clients for 10 to 30 percent of the proposed new loan. However, many of the deals never materialized and customers did not get their deposits back. Some people claim they paid her up to $60,000 after borrowing money from families and credit unions.
The Irish Independent previously revealed how she recently got in touch with a couple who presented her with more than €10,000, assuring them the RTÉ documentary was based on a misunderstanding.
They claim she asked them for an additional €20,000 and told them they would receive contracts for a new mortgage in due course, more than two years after they gave her €10,000 in cash.
The couple ran into financial difficulties during the recession and only became aware of the latest allegations after picking up a copy of their local newspaper.
Former Dragons’ Den star Sarah Newman previously told the Sunday Independent how 10 years ago she made a statement to Gardaí about convicted fraudster Catriona Carey – the collapse of a company she ran with her then business partner, the Kilkenny hurler DJ Carey, directed.
Ms Newman reported to Gardaí in Blackrock, Co Dublin in 2011 her concerns about “major accounting problems and discrepancies” which came to light when she tried to get her money out of the DJ Carey Enterprises business.
Gardaí sent a file to the DPP ordering that there would be no prosecution.
Ms Newman said she was “completely devastated and devastated” by the recent allegations.
Source: independent