Martin ‘The Viper’ Foley has told the High Court that the reason he did not have legal representation was because his solicitor had passed away suddenly last Sunday morning.
The veteran gangland criminal has taken proceedings challenging the Criminal Assets Bureau’s (CAB) bid to seize and sell his Dublin home.
Mr Justice Cian Ferriter today granted Foley a stay on the sale of his home in Cashel Avenue, Kimmage, Dublin, until Friday, stating it would also give him time to find a new solicitor.
Foley, who attended court with his wife, represented himself today and told the court he needed an extension of time so that he could appeal a court order granting CAB possession of the property and the right to sell it.
Foley was refused an ex parte stay last week by Mr Justice David Nolan who told him he would have to serve notice of his intentions on CAB’s legal team.
When the matter returned to court today barrister Shaula Connaughton Deeny, counsel for CAB, told Judge Ferriter that while Mr Foley had filed written evidence to the court, the affidavit had not been given to CAB.
She said that when CAB had obtained an order for possession and sale of Foley’s home in 2024 he had been granted a stay of 18 months and that stay runs out on Thursday.
Judge Ferriter read the affidavit in court in which Foley stated he had a hearing for an extension of time listed before the High Court on 9 December next, to allow him seek an appeal. The date was outside the existing stay.
He stated there was a serious risk to his family home where he lived with his wife and 11-year-old child.
The CAB order could be enforced before that date, resulting in consequences which may be difficult or impossible to reverse.
He submitted that in the interests of justice he should be allowed a stay until the court had determined his application on 9 December.
CAB had seized his home because he had failed to pay an outstanding tax bill of almost €1 million. The bureau had assessed Foley as owing more than €916,000 in unpaid taxes up to 2000.
The case has been going on for more than 10 years when judgment was recorded against the house which is registered in the names of Foley and his deceased wife, Pauline, but his current wife, Sonya, is arguing that she owns at least half of it and it should not be sold.
She claimed she and her daughter will be made homeless.