From horses to High Court rulings: the long history behind Catherine O’Brien’s crimes
Catherine O'Brien at Waterford Circuit Court where she pleaded not guilty to three charges of deception regarding the purchase, transport and insurance of a French horse. File picture: Dan Linehan
On the evening Catherine O’Brien was brought to court to face deception charges in June 2024, it was a quiet Sunday in Clonmel.
The small number of people who walked past the court could not help but stare as the then 46-year-old Cork woman shuffled slowly into and out of the courthouse assisted by gardaí.
The Buttevant native looked and acted much older than she was, and her efforts to hide her face with scarves brought more attention on her than she had hoped. Once inside the courthouse, she carefully removed the items she had used to hide her face, including a scarf and hat.
Time and the law had caught up with her, but she didn’t want people to see her — even carefully putting back on her disguise at the end of the short court hearing to hide herself from a waiting photographer.
She had been arrested a day earlier in Meath, and questioned under theft and fraud legislation, before being charged with having induced a man called John Blake to pay €1,000 insurance for a French mare called Lingreville; €20,000 for the purchase of the animal, and €984 for the transport of Lingreville from France to Ireland.
On Wednesday, she was sentenced to 25 months in prison, backdated to last July.
By the time of her arrest, the had been investigating her for almost two years, after a case came on our radar from Waterford Circuit Court in which she was a prosecution witness in a demanding money with menace case.
She failed to turn up in court for that case and the court heard that she was at that time a suspect in eight active cases involving €100,000 and lesser amounts.
On delving into her background, a High Court ruling made in February 2022 came to our attention.
The ruling was made in favour of the Criminal Assets Bureau, allowing the retention by the State of a 2015-registered Land Rover Discovery which the High Court ruled was purchased through the proceeds of “criminal frauds” by Ms O’Brien.
On that occasion, she also failed to turn up in court for the proceeds of crime hearing.
She appealed the decision by Mr Justice Alexander Owens and it was listed for directions in the Court of Appeal in Dublin, but the appeal never actually went in for hearing. Instead, it was struck out, subject to an ‘Unless Order’, on July 15, 2022.
At the heart of the High Court judgement was a business called Advanced Vetmed Ireland (AVMI) Ltd, which never opened. AVMI had no visible connection to O'Brien, and a Clare dairy farmer, who later passed away, was the 100% shareholder. O’Brien was neither a director or shareholder.
The judgment by Mr Justice Alexander Owens said: “She [O’Brien] set up this company but she did not want to be a director. She arranged for Nicola Beresford to act as a director. This lady, who was in her 60s, had previously been involved in a business venture organised by Catherine O’Brien.”
The judgment noted that the previous venture had failed, proving to be costly for Ms Beresford and her family. It added that O’Brien was not a signatory on the company bank account for AVMI.
The judgment further stated that the paperwork submitted to the motor taxation authorities for the 2015 Landrover Discovery showed AVMI as the owner of the vehicle. A change of ownership of the vehicle was declared in April 2015 in favour of O’Brien’s uncle.
The judgement continued: “The signature of the owner in manuscript is 'Nicola Bearsford (sic) Advanced Vet Med; Kate O’Brien'. The purported signature of Nicola Beresford was not genuine.”
The judgement added that O’Brien “was not entitled to sign a change of ownership form for Land Rover Discovery 151 C 2667 and she was not authorised to put the signature of Nicola Beresford on that form”.
O’Brien had become acquainted with the Clare farmer through a vet she had met through an online dating site — an echo of how she first met her victim John Blake in the case finalised on Wednesday.
In relation to the dairy farmer, the High Court judgment by Mr Justice Owens said that the Buttevant woman had introduced him “to a project of opening a veterinary business and of buying property for that business”.
However, the judgement said that on occasions in 2014 and 2015 “she altered and misused cheques” which she got from the dairy farmer to cover, for example, stamp duty and fees to the Companies Registration Office.
The judgement added: “There was a pattern of activity and at least two of these cheques ended up in her Permanent TSB current account.”
The judgement outlined that she purchased a new Land Rover Discovery in 2014 with a cheque for €47,000 and a trade-in vehicle valued at €8,500.
After the deal was finalised in mid-April, she contacted the dealer to ask him not to present the €47,000 cheque to the bank, claiming that her handbag had been stolen.
The vehicle, for which she specified that the customer was “(Kate O’Brien) AVMI Ltd”, with an address in Buttevant, was eventually paid on May 7 that year with a cheque.
The judgement stated that “the source of funds was the ledger balance of client funds” which was held by solicitors for AVMI.
The judgement revealed that although O'Brien had written out a cheque for €47,000 for the vehicle, examination of her Permanent TSB current account statements from April 17, 2014, to May 7, 2014, “shows that this account held insufficient funds to meet a cheque for €47,000”.
It added: “The credit balance fluctuated between €6,965 odd and €1,415 odd during that period.”
Mr Justice Owens said the only personal money O’Brien used in buying the €50,000-plus Land Rover, and the 151-registered model she acquired after trading the first one in, was €1,000 on her credit card.
The 151 vehicle, according to the judgement, was purchased with a cheque written out by the dairy farmer in favour of the Companies Registration Office but which the payee had been altered to the word “Cash”.
The amount on the cheque was €21,000 — even though the corresponding stub in the cheque book from which it was taken noted that its value was for €27.
The judgment continued: “The cheque has been examined by an expert who has concluded that the name of the payee was altered to ‘Cash’. The amount of the cheque was altered to €21,000.”
In an interview with gardaí, Catherine O’Brien denied altering any cheques. Once again, the forms relating to the sale stated her name and also “AVMI limited” at Main St, Buttevant, Co Cork. On documents related to the company, Catherine was neither a shareholder or a director of AVMI.
In his judgement, Mr Justice Owens stated: “Catherine O’Brien was not a director of that company (AVMI) or a signatory to the company bank account which was opened in December 2014.
"She was not entitled to buy or sell motor vehicles on behalf of that company or to hold herself out as having authority to engage in these transactions.”
The ownership details for the 2015 vehicle were changed in a declaration to the Department of Transport in Shannon in April of that year, with her uncle’s name, Ned Hawe, placed on it.
However, the insurance was in O'Brien’s name, with no reference to her uncle on the insurance documents. She claimed that she gave her uncle ownership of the 2015 Land Rover Discovery as security for a loan of €50,000.
However, the High Court judgement outlined that there was no paper trail to substantiate the loan claim. Sworn affidavits disclose neither the source of funds, the method of payment, receipt of the money, or how it was spent.
During the Garda investigation, the dairy farmer told officers that “he provided Catherine O’Brien with money for horses which disappeared”.
He also said he had given O'Brien over €53,000 in cash in Charleville in April 2014 after she said it was needed immediately for payment on a property in Dungarvan for the business.
Mr Justice Owens stated in his judgement: “If this information is correct, cash given to buy the property in Dungarvan was misappropriated and used for some other purpose. It did not end up in Catherine O’Brien’s Permanent TSB bank account and it was not handed to the solicitors in Mallow or used to buy the car.”
He added: “The affidavits of Catherine O’Brien contain explanations which are inherently improbable. Some explanations advanced by her are improbable because they are inconsistent with content of bank accounts or materials in other exhibits which I consider reliable. Other explanations advanced by her contradict her earlier explanations.”
There were elements of this case which were echoed in the case for which she was sentenced this week for deception relating to the horse called Lingreville.
Similar to how she had met the County Clare vet, her paths crossed with the victim in the Lingreville case, Dubliner John Blake, through a dating website, Plenty of Fish.
Ned Hawe was also a key figure in the case involving Lingreville and stood bail for her when she was charged.
During the trial in July, it was heard that she was carer for her beloved uncle, and when he passed away in September, she was granted bail before duly returning to prison to await sentencing.
Mr Hawe was one of her two closest confidants during the legal process since June 2024. The second was Lismore stud farmer John Walsh, who was with her in court to hear the guilty verdict returned by the jury in just 40 minutes, having given evidence in her defence earlier in the trial.
The jury heard during the trial how she convinced Mr Blake to invest €20,000 in a thoroughbred stallion called Shakeel, which had been purchased from the Aga Khan. Two breeding rights in Shakeel were also sold to Mr Blake at €7,000 each.
It was claimed O’Brien told him he could make huge profits by investing in a brood mare to be covered by Shakeel, and he paid €20,000 for a mare he believed was called Lingreville.
This, the court heard, was after he was advised by O’Brien that the purchase would help offset tax implications arising from earnings from Shakeel.
The court heard that while Mr Blake had made several attempts to meet with O’Brien and to see Lingreville and the foal he believed she had produced by Shakeel, a raft of excuses were provided by O’Brien.
These included the death of a friend in Spain, and health issues including broken ribs, a virus contracted from foals, back problems, and recurring shingles.
Her mother was gravely ill, she told Mr Blake. She also said she herself needed surgery on her nose and also needed dental treatment.
She told him:
The trial heard that in October 2021, after O’Brien had been charged with fraud relating to Mr Blake and the purchase of the mare Lingreville, Mr Blake received payment of €22,000 and signed a settlement for the money with Mr Walsh and O’Brien.
The document stated it was for a brood mare named Shamalana, who had been incorrectly named as Lingreville, and for breeding rights to the stallion Shakeel.
While there was no record of Shakeel having covered Lingreville, there was a record of him covering a mare called Shamalana.
At another point, prosecuting counsel Conor O’Doherty questioned if Shakeel had sired any winners, to which Ms O’Brien responded that one, Shakespurr, had placed in a race in Slovakia, as revealed by the in 2023.
When Mr O’Doherty put it to O’Brien that placing in a Slovakian race would not have the same status as races in Ireland, the UK, or France, O’Brien responded: “As with any racehorse going out, it doesn’t matter if it is the Curragh, or Ballinrobe, or it doesn’t matter if it is Slovakia, it is an achievement for any horse to be placed or win in a race.”
During cross-examination, the court heard that a phone number used by the accused had also been linked to communications with Wetherbys and Five Star Bloodstock in relation to transport by women called Kate Egan and Amy Power respectively.
Mr O’Doherty asked O’Brien who these women were and if Amy Power was a fake name she had used, to which she replied: “I do not accept that.”
Her counsel applied, in the absence of the jury, for an adjournment of the case for a week and Judge O’Kelly was presented with a medical certificate from SouthDoc in Mallow outlining that O’Brien was suffering from severe neuralgic pain.
The judge was told O’Brien was unable to sit. The certificate outlined that she would not be able to attend “school or work” until July 20.
Mr O’Doherty pointed out that Mr Blake had attended court despite his cancer diagnosis. The trial had earlier heard that Mr Blake had been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and also suffered a stroke in recent years.
The case was adjourned for a day, but this was because a member of the jury had suffered a bereavement over the weekend.
Judge O’Kelly said there was very little evidence left to be given, which could be given while standing, and directed that O’Brien return to court the following day.
On her return the next morning, her condition appeared to have greatly improved and she remained seated for much of the proceedings, including while finishing off her cross-examination.
A reminder of that part of the trial came in early October when her case was back before Waterford Circuit Court for mention as she awaited sentence.
She appeared via video link from Limerick prison, using two crutches to walk to her chair for the short hearing.
Her demeanour also brought to mind her first appearance in Clonmel over a year earlier when she shuffled to and from the court to face criminal charges for her dealings with John Blake.
By the next hearing, on November 5, the Buttevant woman was not present, either in person or by video link. She was due to be sentenced on that date.
However, a medical note was handed into the court, outlining that the now 48-year-old, was in hospital in Ennis, Co Clare, having “been transferred from rehabilitation to Ennis General Hospital".
The court heard she has been receiving medical attention since October 10. Judge Eugene O’Kelly told the court that it was not the first time that her “medical condition has caused difficulties with this trial".
As the decision on her immediate future was made on Wednesday by Judge Eugene O’Kelly, there was nobody there on her side to watch her appear via video link.
Again her health was a factor as she appeared sitting in a wheelchair alongside a male nurse. Her defence outlined that her relationship with her two adult daughters has become strained.
As Judge O’Kelly handed down his sentence, justice had finally caught up with O’Brien.
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