Gardaí speak to fraudster Denyse O’Brien as probe nears completion

Denyse O’Brien, originally from Cork, is under investigation by the specialist national garda unit after several people made statements of complaint, claiming she ripped them off.

O’Brien set up a human resource business called Watch Your Back ­Ireland. Some of her former clients have contacted gardaí, alleging she was hired and paid to do work on their behalf that was not carried out.

A detective at the GNECB was appointed to lead the investigation after a pattern of complaints to gardaí across the country, including in Dublin, Louth and Meath.

The Sunday World understands O’Brien was recently spoken to “in some capacity” by investigators. Gardaí have not yet arrested her. A file is due to be sent to the DPP.

The investigation into her activities is now at an advanced stage. It “made sense” for fraud investigators to spearhead the probe and get an “overarching sense” of the allegations, rather than officers in various stations investigating individual complaints.

The website for Watch Your Back Ireland has been taken down. The company had purported to assist employees who believed they had been mistreated in the workplace.

O’Brien set up Watch Your Back ­Ireland in 2019. She changed the spelling of her first name to “Denise” for the business venture.

In 2015, O’Brien, then of Sruthain an Padraig, Rhebogue, Limerick, pleaded guilty to fraud amounting to €3,000. At the time, she was an organiser of a major charity event in Limerick, which collapsed after it emerged she admitted to defrauding a woman of €3,000 on her debit card.

O’Brien’s solicitor told the court the fraud had “coincided with a very difficult period” in O’Brien’s life.

At the time, she was the organiser of “The 26 Miles for 26 Heroes” baton relay event in Limerick. The idea was to have “heroes” representing 26 local good causes cover a mile each in the event. After it emerged she had a conviction for fraud, the event collapsed.

It was revealed afterwards that O’Brien had also tricked dozens of people who enrolled on a bogus healthcare course she set up, as reported by the Limerick Leader.