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Martin ‘Viper’ Foley free for Christmas as ‘issue’ with judge stalls sentencing

Both Foley and his wife Sonia were present at Wexford Circu

it Court when Foley’s case was called on Tuesday.

Today at 15:54

VETERAN gangster Martin ‘The Viper’ Foley will remain a free man for Christmas after a last minute ‘issue’ with the judge led to his sentencing on public order charges being adjourned.

Earlier this year, the 68-year-old 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 in respect of the offence.

Both Foley and his wife Sonia were present at Wexford Circuit Court when Foley’s case was called on Tuesday.

However, defence barrister Grainne Lee informed the court that a ‘last minute issue’ had arisen that would necessitate the case being put back again.

“It’s in relation to the particular composition of the court,” she said.

“It’s in relation to dealings the court may have had in the court’s past existence.”

Judge Cormac Quinn responded that he could not remember any dealings with Mr. Foley.

“The problem is,” said Ms. Lee, “Mr. Foley recollects them.”

She said her client had not been present in court previously when the date was set for sentencing.

Judge Quinn responded that while he did not see any difficulty with his acting as judge in the case, he would put the matter back to another judge’s list.

After Foley pleaded guilty to engaging in threatening behaviour in July, state prosecutor Sinead Gleeson confirmed the State would not be proceeding with a separate charge against Foley alleging he had made a threat to kill tenant Nigel Doolin on the day of the incident.

Foley was arraigned on a single count that on June 17, 2020 at 20 Holly Walk, Cromwellsfort Grove, Wexford he 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.’

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.

Nulty was 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.’

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

What Nulty said was delivered in such a way as to make it believable and Doolin was rightly terrified.

It was noted however 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.

Nicknamed ‘The Viper’, Martin 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.