CAREY’D AWAY 

Fraudster Catriona Carey’s bogus solicitor’s secret texts to €400k mortgage scam victims revealed

THE bogus solicitor used by fraudster Catriona Carey in an alleged €400,000 mortgage scam accused her victims of telling lies.

The fake lawyer – whose real job was in the building trade – accused those who lost cash of “making false allegations”.

Posing as high-profile lawyer ‘Damien’, he made the comments in a series of text messages when Carey’s victims started asking questions about cash they had handed over to keep their properties.

The scam involved Carey – using her company Careysfort Asset Estate – offering to buy debt from their mortgage lenders at a discount.

And The Irish Sun today reveals for the first time details of the exchanges between Carey’s so-called legal advisor and her victims.

The texts started in April 2021 shortly after the former Irish hockey star told desperate homeowners her solicitor ‘Damien’ would be in contact with them.

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In a message on April 28, 2021, when one of the 19 victims was asking for an update, he replied: “Due to unforeseen circumstances I have to take the next few days off. Sorry for the delay but this is beyond my control.”

Just a week later, he sent another apology before saying: “I am restructuring the contract and will have it emailed to Catriona.”

After repeatedly ignoring requests for meetings over the next few weeks, he replied on May 31 that he was unavailable because he was working on a “high profile case”.

His apologies over his failure to keep appointments continued into June when he said: “I will have to again rearrange our appointments due to work commitments.

“Would my office be acceptable? We could also meet in Mount Wolseley to finalise matters.”

And when that meeting was due to get underway on June 22, he sent another text saying: “It has transpired I am actually attending court.”

He again used the excuse that he was at the “high profile case” on June 24.

Another meeting was planned for July but he sent a text saying: “It has transpired that I’m actually attending Kilkenny Court.”

It was only when homeowners asked for their cash back and questioned Carey that ‘Damien’ replied: “Because of false allegations and breach of contracts behaviour, I will let the Garda deal with yourself.

“I’ve contacted the Garda and given all relevant information. Also statements from Careysfort.”

‘GOOD ACTOR’

Our revelations come after the man was arrested by officers from the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau last week.

One victim told us: “These text messages are just an example of the type of behaviour that we were dealing with.

“There is no question that Carey got this man to act as a solicitor and he was a very good actor.

“When people started asking questions about their money he got all defensive and threatened to sue us.

“His strategy was all about delay and stall because he knew we weren’t getting our money back.”

Separately, Carey was arrested in February for questioning as part of an investigation into alleged breaches of company law.

She was detained as part of the inquiry by the Corporate Enforcement Authority, which is separate to the Garda probe into the alleged mortgage scam.

It’s understood those alleged breaches of company law under investigation by the authority relate to Careysfort