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Veteran gangster Martin ‘the Viper’ Foley pleads guilty in debt-threat case

Gangster Foley admits threatening behaviour after heavy claimed he would slit man’s throat over unpaid rent debt

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Veteran gangster Martin ‘the Viper’ Foley has pleaded guilty to engaging in threatening and abusive behaviour during an incident in which a ‘heavy’ for Viper Debt Recovery threatened to slit a man’s throat over a €4,000 debt.

The 68-year-old, widely regarded as one of Ireland’s most notorious gangland criminals’, faces a maximum sentence of three months in prison after taking the stand at Wexford District Court on Tuesday and entering the plea.

State prosecutor Sinead Gleeson confirmed to Judge James McCourt the State would not be proceeding with a separate charge against Foley alleging he too had made a threat to kill tenant Nigel Doolin on the day of the incident.

Details of the charge on which Foley was being arraigned were read to him after he entered the dock.

The count alleged that Foley, on June 17, 2020 at 20 Holly Walk, Cromwellsfort Grove, Wexford engaged in threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour with an intent to provoke a breach of the peace or being reckless as to whether such a breach of the peace occurred.’

In reply to the charge, Foley responded: ‘Guilty.’

Ms Gleeson told the court that sentencing in the matter would take a relatively short period of time as Foley’s co-accused Alan Nulty had already pleaded guilty to making a threat to kill and had been sentenced for that offence.

During Nulty’s sentencing hearing in January last year, the court heard how he had been working for Viper Debt Recovery — a company founded by Martin Foley — when on June 17, 2020 he threatened tenant Mr Doolin he would ‘have his throat slit while he walked his dog’ if he didn’t come up with €4,000 in rent arrears.

Nulty uttered the threat, and another that he would “get someone to smash your head with a hammer” while attempting to collect the debt in rent arrears from Wexford man Doolin.

Nulty dodged a jail sentence over the threats, which carry a maximum sentence of up to 10 years in prison, after the court heard he had ‘no intention of carrying out the threats.’

Nulty’s sentencing hearing heard how Garda Emer O’Reilly was called to the house on that date.

On arriving at the property, she spoke to landlord David Allen, who claimed that he was owed €4,000 in rent by his tenant Nigel Doolin.

He also said that he had called in the debt recovery agency run by Martin Foley.

The accused, Alan Nulty, was present too and he stated that he was there to recover property to cover the debt.

The garda heard a recording of a man with a Dublin accent, who turned out to be Nulty. The recording was made through the door of the house by Doolin.

As well as the hammer threat, the recording also picked up a warning that the tenant would have his throat slit while he was out walking his dog.

The garda witness described the tone of the threats made by the defendant as ‘persuasive’. The court was told that the debt recovery agency was due to take 20 per cent of whatever was recovered.

Nulty told the garda that he had no intention of carrying out any of the threats he made. A qualified electrician and father of three, he had been working for a security firm in recent years.

However, his ability to work had been affected by an arm injury sustained in a motorcycle accident four years earlier.

Defending counsel accepted that what happened at Holly Walk was totally unacceptable, describing it as ‘a spectacular once off lapse of judgement’.

The judge described the incident at Cromwellsfort as an insidious crime with disturbing aspects to it and he decided to take a couple of days to formulate his decision.

When the case was re-called, the judge remarked that the tenant had been threatened in a very serious way.

What Nulty said was delivered in such a way as to make it believable and Doolin was rightly terrified. It was noted that no actual violence occurred.

The seriousness of the incident was marked by the recording of a three-year jail term. However, this sentence was suspended in full once Nulty agreed to raise €5,000 to be offered to the man he attempted to intimidate.

Martin Foley’s sentencing for the offence of engaging in threatening and abusive behaviour during the incident was this week adjourned to a later court date.

Foley set up Viper Debt Recovery on November 18, 2004, at which time his profession was described in company documents as a ‘sale rep.’

The company identified its purpose as ‘the provision of debt recovery and repossession services and to carry out all activities in relation to the aforementioned business.’

He resigned as a director of the company on November 17, 2014.

Foley’s wife Sonia, who was present in court with him on Tuesday, was appointed as a director of the company in October 2018 and retains this position.

Nicknamed ‘The Viper’, Foley has more than 40 convictions for offences including assault, robbery and possession of threatening weapons.

In 2020, he was ordered to pay €738,449 in tax, interest and penalties after losing a Supreme Court appeal against a Criminal Assets Bureau tax bill.

Foley had taken the case to the Supreme Court, claiming that CAB had delayed for years in pursuing him for the principal sum, interest and penalties and that the total sum owed dwarfed the original judgment against him.

The interest and penalties incurred over the unpaid tax bill more than trebled the amount initially owed.

Foley came to prominence in the 1980s when he was a member of the gang which was led by slain mobster Martin ‘The General’ Cahill and as a spokesman for a gang which clashed with the Concerned Parents anti drug movement.

He was kidnapped by the IRA in 1984 but was freed after a shoot-out between the terrorists and gardai in Phoenix Park.

Foley’s life has been under threat since the late 1980s with different criminal enterprises intent on murdering him.

In the last major attack on his life, he was shot numerous times in broad daylight in Dublin in January 2008 by the Kinahan cartel.

Although the attacker escaped in a white Ford van, Foley whispered his name to the first garda who arrived on the scene