Ex sports star ‘honestly believed’ company was legitimate even after exposé aired

In it, former Irish camogie player Catriona Carey and her company were exposed for involvement in a six-figure mortgage fraud that had targeted vulnerable and indebted homeowners.

The victims were decent but desperate people who had paid tens of thousands of euro in deposits on a promise their non-performing debt could be bought back from the banks at a lower rate – reducing their mortgages accordingly.

But the programme revealed that for more than two years these people were strung along by Catriona Carey with promises of contracts that never appeared and for which negotiations had never begun.

Somewhat incredibly, Carey this week claimed to the Sunday World that up until the programme aired, and even afterwards, she still believed her company was legitimate.

As the programme aired Carey says she was holed up in her bedroom with her two children unable to watch it.

“I knew the week before that the documentary was coming out,” Carey said, “and I had been told my legal team and (associate) was taking care of the situation.

“To make sure the story didn’t air because in my honest endeavours it wasn’t true. Refunds and or contracts were in place …

“And, naturally, when I’m receiving this information from legal people I’m going to sit back and let them look after it.”

Carey continued about the night the show aired: “I sat in my bedroom with my two children and I didn’t watch it because it is obviously something that is very difficult to watch. But my (associate) was watching it.

“He reported back to me at 10.30 when the programme finished.

“He said: ‘Oh, it wasn’t so bad – it’s all lies.’

“My heart had been in my mouth for four or five days before that thinking ‘why is this happening’?

“Our contracts are in place, our funds are in with a reputable solicitor.

“Why are they running this programme when I have been told by our legal team that they were going into RTÉ several days before this to try and stop the programme.”

Carey said she only realised how devastating the programme had been from the reactions of others.

“The following day I met a very good friend of mine, who said: ‘Catriona, what have you done? The programme was horrific’.

“And I said: ‘I can’t watch it … I’m just not able to watch it.

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“In the next couple of days the truth will come out. And I’ll be vindicated, because the programme was wrong or they were in error, or it was somebody trying to sabotage my business.”

“But in all of this, I honestly believed, because I was a client myself in this process, that this programme wasn’t representing the truth. The clients’ contracts were ready to go or there were refunds ready to give back to the clients.”

Carey said she did eventually sit down and watch the programme that had aired.

“I watched it about a month later,” she said.

Asked what her reaction would have been if she was watching it as someone other than Catriona Carey, she replied: “My initial reaction was this is disgraceful. These people are vulnerable.

“This lady has gone ahead and taken funds from people and done nothing for them … scammed them.

“But then I’d have asked … well, there must be more to this?

“Who else is behind this company and what’s really going on?”