Dublin gangland figure Martin 'The Viper' Foley fights CAB house seizure in High Court

Veteran criminal Martin Foley, 75, appeared in the High Court to challenge a repossession order on his Kimmage home over a €916,000 unpaid tax bill.

Foley challenges CAB repossession order on Dublin home, warns of homelessness

Martin "The Viper" Foley, a 75-year-old veteran gangland figure with more than 60 convictions, took his first step in the High Court on Thursday in a bid to block the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) from seizing and selling his home at Cashel Avenue, Kimmage, Dublin, the Irish Times reports.

Judge David Nolan refused to grant Foley an ex-parte stay against CAB's existing authority to execute a repossession order on the property in a fortnight's time. The judge instead told Foley he would grant him leave to serve short notice on CAB of his intention to bring stay proceedings before the court next Tuesday, giving the bureau's legal team time to be present to contest the application.

Representing himself in court, Foley told Judge Nolan that he and his wife would be left without a roof over their heads if they were put out of the house on 16 September. "My wife would be thrown out of the house," he said.

The judge noted that the Circuit Court had already made a possession order against Foley in 2024, and that he had previously been granted an 18-month stay on execution of the order to allow him to find alternative accommodation. Foley argued that new accounting information had since come to light and that he wished to apply for a further stay to allow time to appeal the existing court orders.

Tax debt of nearly €1 million

CAB moved to seize the property after Foley failed to pay an outstanding tax bill assessed at more than €916,000 in unpaid taxes up to the year 2000. The legal dispute over the house has been running for more than a decade, with judgment eventually recorded against the property.

The house is registered in the names of Foley and his deceased wife, Pauline. His current wife, Sonya, contends she owns at least half of the property and that it should not be sold. "There is no reality to me purchasing another home," Sonya Foley told the court. "Eviction would make my daughter and I homeless."

Foley told the court he works two days a week as a van driver but struggles to manage on his pension. He said his wife is on disability and that they have no additional assets. The couple married and have a child born in 2015, though an earlier court was told they had not produced a marriage certificate or a birth certificate.

Offers of settlement and defamation proceeds

Foley put forward several proposals to resolve the dispute. He said he was willing to participate in a Mortgage to Rent Scheme under which CAB could sell the house but he and his family would remain living there, making monthly contributions through a payment plan.

He also offered to hand over to CAB "the benefit of two defamation actions" he is currently pursuing against the BBC and Penguin Books.

Separately, Foley claimed he had been led to believe that CAB and the Revenue Commissioners had agreed not to pursue him for the outstanding tax debt on the basis of a deal he said was struck with them. He claimed he had been told that if he did not pursue Charles Bowden for €120,000, CAB would not chase him for the tax liability. Bowden, now in the witness protection programme, was responsible for the weapons used by John Gilligan's drugs gang and gave evidence against Gilligan and associate Brian Meehan in the Special Criminal Court. Bowden also admitted in that court that he loaded the gun used to shoot Foley when Foley was seriously wounded outside his home. Meehan continues to serve a life sentence for the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin.

Foley additionally claimed he had paid over €36,000 to the Revenue Commissioners 23 years ago and argued that "a form of set-off" should be applied. He said the house was inherited from his mother and did not represent the proceeds of crime, though the Circuit Civil Court was told that question was not at issue — the case relates solely to the unpaid tax bill.

CAB challenges credibility of evidence

Barrister Shaula Connaughton Deeny, appearing for CAB, said no explanation had been offered as to why Sonya Foley cannot work. "She says she's on disability, we've no evidence of that, their evidence is vague and bare at best," Connaughton Deeny told the court.

"We have no evidence of bank accounts or other assets they may have, how they are all surviving without any income. There is nothing vouching anything they say before the court," she added.

Keith Farry, barrister, who represented Foley in the Circuit Civil Court, said his client had been led to believe the matter would not be pursued and that, after so many years, pursuing it now was "unfair and disproportionate". He noted that Foley had remarried and that the seizure of the couple's home would have a detrimental effect on his current wife and their child.

Criminal history

Foley has more than 60 convictions, including for assault, robbery and possession of weapons. He was a member of the criminal gang led by the late Martin Cahill, known as "The General", and has survived multiple attempts on his life over the years.

Source: Irish Times