Two men plead guilty to roles in €1m crime spree across Clare, Limerick and Galway

Gordon Deegan

Two men have pleaded guilty to a total of 82 charges as part of a €1 million-plus crime spree across the midwest and Galway in 2024 and early 2025.

On one day alone on July 9th 2024, Eddie Carey (31) and Owen Casey (28) committed burglaries at seven premises across Galway and Clare including the burglary at Shannon based Wolfe Tones GAA club - the club of Clare All-Ireland winning senior hurling manager and double All-Ireland winner as a player, Brian Lohan.

In addition to the burglary charge at Wolfe Tones, Carey has also pleaded guilty to committing arson at the Wolfe Tones clubhouse on July 9th 2024.

At Ennis Circuit Court, Carey of De Vere Court, John Carew Park, Limerick has pleaded guilty to 42 charges while his co-accused, Owen Casey of Salvia Court, Keyes Park, Southill, Limerick has pleaded guilty to 40 charges.

Carey has pleaded guilty to 17 burglary charges from February 2024 to September 2024 while Casey has pleaded guilty to 10 burglaries from July 2024 to September 2024.

Counsel for the State, Sarah Jane Comerford BL (instructed by State Solicitor for Clare, Aisling Casey) said that lawyers for both accused “made substantial offers” to the State on behalf of their clients in terms of guilty pleas last week.

The pleas entered by the two followed a long Garda investigation which resulted in a six volume book of evidence being served on the two last year.

Telephone records

The evidence also included 55,000 pages of telephone records and a very extensive amount of CCTV and if the two had contested the charges a trial would have lasted a number of weeks.

Initially, Carey and Casey faced a combined 125 charges with Carey facing 66 charges and Casey facing 59 charges.

Comerford said that Carey has been on remand in custody since January 19th of last year and Casey has been on remand in custody since April 13th last year.

In addition to the burglary charges, Carey has also pleaded guilty to 20 handling stolen property charges while Casey has pleaded guilty to 23 handling stolen property charges.

Contested bail hearing

At a contested bail hearing for Casey last year at Ennis District Court, Det Garda Aoife O’Malley told the court that Casey along with Carey and another man are suspected to be involved in burglaries and stealing high value vehicles across the Midwest with a combined estimated monetary value in excess of €1m.

Det Garda O'Malley said that the Garda investigation commenced out of Ennis Garda Station in July 2024 and was investigating 92 separate alleged offences with a monetary value of in excess of €1m in stolen and damaged property and stolen vehicles.

Det O’Malley said that the 92 separate alleged offences include 31 commercial burglaries, 24 residential burglaries and 27 unauthorised taking of vehicles between January 2024 and March 2025.

Det O’Malley said that it will be alleged that the high value vehicles were stolen to buy for another criminal network for financial gain.

Det O’Malley said that the burglaries were “highly organised”.

Det O’Malley said that in relation to some of the unauthorised taking of vehicles, there are videos of the alleged crimes occurring at the time that they are occurring.

At Ennis Circuit Court, Judge Francis Comerford has directed that victim impact statements be taken from all the injured parties in the case and Ms Comerford said “that will take some time judge”.

Judge Comerford further remanded Casey and Carey in custody to a date in March to fix a date for sentence.