The new RTÉ documentary series Swindlers tells the stories of some of Ireland’s most well known con artists and white collar criminals. The series is told through the voices of the victims, along with the friends and colleagues who were deceived. Stranger than fiction, it shows how these crimes affect not just individuals but entire communities, leaving lasting damage in people’s lives.
Director Maurice Sweeney shares how the series came together.
Almost a year ago, Director of Photography Alex Sapienza and I travelled to Dallas, Texas, to film interviews for the first episode of Swindlers, produced by Animo TV. One of the most important interviews was with Kim Parrish.
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There was a problem. Kim had stopped responding. She had not been in contact with producer Laura Dunne for days. The dates were confirmed. She knew we were coming. Yet there were no emails and no returned calls, only silence.
By that stage, we were used to it. Throughout the series, several contributors pulled out at the last minute. Family members often advised them not to speak publicly. Many felt embarrassed and unsure about sharing something so painful on national television.
We quickly realised that money was not the main reason people hesitated. It was the betrayal. Many victims had trusted someone close to them, only to discover that trust had been completely broken. For many, especially in Ireland, that emotional pain felt harder to face than the financial loss.
As we drove across Texas, I wondered if Kim had changed her mind. The next morning, standing outside a roadside motel, I called her again. The phone rang for what felt like forever.
Then she answered.
With a warm Southern voice, she welcomed us to Texas and calmly gave us directions to her home. Just like that, filming was back on.
Some interviews stay with you. That day with Kim was one of them.
Kim’s life had been deeply changed by an Irish woman named Julia Holmes, who entered her life when she was just nine years old. Julia, who used more than forty different aliases, became her stepmother. Over the next thirty years, Kim’s life was turned upside down.
Julia left behind a trail of fraud, theft, domestic violence, and even an FBI manhunt. Kim’s father eventually went to prison. At first nervous, Kim slowly opened up. Her story was heartbreaking, unsettling, sometimes darkly funny, but above all, honest.
Kim was just one of many brave voices in Swindlers. Those who agreed to speak on camera gave powerful insight into the damage caused by greed and manipulation. While fraud cases usually focus on money, the strongest emotion shared by victims and investigators was not financial loss. It was betrayal, made worse by the lack of remorse from the criminals.
The series also explores the offenders themselves. During the Celtic Tiger era, ambition and excess flourished. Figures like Thomas Byrne and Harry Cassidy appeared to believe there were no limits. For me, the key question was not just what they did but when ambition became greed, and when greed turned into crime.
At its heart, Swindlers is a human story. It crosses class, geography, and circumstance. It shows how fragile our sense of safety can be when we place trust in the wrong hands and how easily that trust can be used against us.
What stayed with me most was not the scale of the crimes. It was the quiet courage of those who chose to speak out. By breaking their silence, they reclaimed something more important than money, their dignity. That can be the hardest thing to recover.
Swindlers airs on RTÉ One on Wednesday 18 February at 9.35pm and will be available to stream afterwards on RTÉ Player.
