*Charges of burglary and arson at the grounds of Wolfe Tones were among the 82 charges faced by the men.
TWO MEN have pleaded guilty to a total of 82 charges as part of a €1m plus crime spree across the Clare, Limerick 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.
In addition to the burglary charge at Wolfe Tones, Mr Carey has also pleaded guilty to committing arson at the Wolfe Tones clubhouse on July 9th 2024.
At Ennis Circuit Court, Mr 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.
Mr Carey has pleaded guilty to 17 burglary charges from February 2024 to September 2024 while Mr 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.
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, Mr Carey and Mr Casey faced a combined 125 charges with Mr Carey facing 66 charges and Mr Casey facing 59 charges.
Ms Comerford said that Mr Carey has been on remand in custody since January 19th of last year and Mr Casey has been on remand in custody since April 13th last year.
In addition to the burglary charges, Mr Carey has also pleaded guilty to 20 handling stolen property charges while Mr Casey has pleaded guilty to 23 handling stolen property charges.
At a contested bail hearing for Mr Casey last year at Ennis District Court, Det Garda Aoife O’Malley told the court that Mr Casey along with Mr Carey and another man are suspected to be involved in burglaries and stealing high value vehicles across the Mid-West 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 Mr Casey and Mr Carey in custody to a date in March to fix a date for sentence.
