Bookie: Horse racing body kept £100k prize bond win

HORSE Racing Ireland is facing a six-figure claim for damages amid allegations that it kept winnings owed to an on-track bookmaker and never told him about his windfall.

Denis Carey, a bookmaker from Co Meath, has taken a High Court case claiming a prize bond win of £100,000 was wrongfully retained by HRI, formerly the Racing Board and Irish Horseracing Authority, in 1995.

The details did not come to light until 2005, following rumours in the racing community.

Affidavits were filed by both sides last year, but the case has yet to be heard. If it loses, HRI would be expected to pay compensation for lost earnings.

The conflict centres on specific prize bond numbers allocated to Mr Carey when he took out his on-track trading permit in the late 1970s.

On-track bookies were traditionally required to lodge money with the racing board as a type of insurance against claims by punters or a failure to pay levies. The board bought prize bonds with these deposits and kept the books on behalf of individual traders.

It was practice for each block of bonds to remain in the name of the racing board, but all winnings would automatically pass to the permit holder they were linked to. For the most part, the winnings were quite small.

It has been claimed that when bonds linked to Mr Carey’s permit won big in 1995, the money was not transferred to him.

The suggestion is that this was because Mr Carey owed the IHA an estimated £1,000. Such debts were common among bookies.

Mr Carey’s case is rooted in claims that HRI’s predecessor used the 1995 prize bond winnings to pay off his debt and that the remaining £99,000 was wrongfully pooled with the racing board’s funds.

It has also been claimed that no effort was made to tell Mr Carey about the arrangement. Certain HRI records relating to the claim no longer exist.

HRI did not answer a number of questions put to it. But it did release a statement suggesting Mr Carey retired seven years before the prize bond won.

It declined to provide documents or references to support this. And it would not comment on records showing Mr Carey was a permit holder in the mid-1990s.

“Horse Racing Ireland can confirm that former bookmaker Denis Carey [retired 1988] has initiated High Court proceedings claiming monies allegedly due to him from HRI’s predecessor bodies, the Racing Board and the IHA,” it said.

“As this issue is the subject of legal proceedings, it is not appropriate for HRI to comment any further on the matter.”

Mr Carey was also contacted but did not comment.

However, he disputed the suggestion made by HRI that he retired in 1988. He supplied documents that he said proved he was officially recorded as a permit holder when the bond came good in the mid-1990s and up to 2003.