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One of Ireland’s most prolific con-artists is behind bars until 2011. |
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Terry Kirby—serial fraudster |
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Phone: ++353 (0)1-884-9000 Fax: ++353 (0)1-884-9001 E-mail: eamon@dilloninvestigates.com
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SERIAL fraudster Terry Kirby who poses as a professional jockey to rip-off victims has been jailed again after crime spree while on the run from jail. Last month he was sentenced nine months in Galway for a series of frauds and thefts committed just days after finishing a sentence in October 2008. Despite being tried and convicted and sent back to jail the prolific conman escaped from prison in February. In one of his cons he persuaded a pub barman that he had come to change the price tags on a cigarette machine which he then unscrewed from the wall. Kirby was even helped by the pub staff to wheel the machine out and load it into a car he had stolen at a Galway city house party the night before. “Terry is a plausible character and good company. But he knows how to take his opportunity and is ruthless about it,” said a Sunday World source with long experience of the Kildare man. Days later he persuaded a young relative of a well-known horse trainer that he was a professional jockey and had come to borrow a jeep which he took after a enjoying a cup of tea. In the back of the jeep were a series of charity calendars which Kirby then sold off before eventually being arrested. The calendars were part of the annual fund raiser aimed at raising money for injured jockeys and sold at race meetings by wives and girlfriends. He also turned up at a Tipperary hotel where he posed as a top jockey Paul Carberry and stole property. Kirby also stole items and a four-wheel drive BMW after raiding hotel rooms in Cork and Kerry before driving back to Kildare. Despite being convicted in February this year he then walked out of an open prison and embarked on another week of break-ins in Carlow until he was re-arrested. Kirby is now serving jail sentences until February 2011. In the past he has pretended to be Dean Gallagher and Graham Lee to inveigle his way into people’s company. As a youngster he worked as a stable lad and made an attempt to become a professional jockey in the UK but failed. He has used his expert knowledge of the racing game to hoodwink his victims into believing he is a famous jockey. In one scam he turned up at a British pub where he became a favourite of the regulars for his accurate racing tips, until the night he disappeared with the bar-takings. Another horse trainer took Kirby to be jockey Graham Lee after being introduced to him in a pub. It took three days after ‘Lee’ had failed to return the owner’s Jaguar car that he realised he had been conned. Back in Ireland another put Kirby up in his house and allowed him to ride out his horses thinking he was Dean Gallagher. In April 2007 the Turf Club took the unusual step of issuing a text warning to their members when Kirby was released from jail. Even then he still managed to pull off a number of strokes in the UK where the Horseracing Regulatory Agency followed the Turf Club’s example and published his picture in July that year.
Eamon Dillon, Sunday World, July 2009. eamon.dillon@sundayworld.com |
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