Martin ‘The Viper’ Foley has been given a short reprieve on the mandatory sale of his house by the Criminal Assets Bureau (Cab) after he told the High Court that his solicitor had “passed away suddenly” last weekend.
Foley, a veteran gangland criminal, has been in a legal dispute with Cab over the sale of his house at Cashel Avenue, Kimmage, after it was granted permission to seize the property to settle an almost €1 million outstanding tax debt.
An 18-month stay was put in place in March 2025 as his wife and then nine-year-old daughter lived in the property.
On Tuesday, Foley was given a short extension of the stay on the sale until Friday to allow him to seek legal representation, as well as an extension of time for him to apply for a longer stay until his appeal of the sale order can be heard.
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Last week, a High Court judge refused to grant Foley an ex parte stay against Cab’s existing court authority to execute a repossession order on his house but allowed him to serve short notice of stay proceedings.
Foley, who was accompanied by his wife in court on Tuesday, represented himself and told Judge Cian Ferriter that his solicitor had died “the other day”.
Shaula Connaughton Deeny, for Cab, told the court that Foley had submitted the court filings himself. She said the bureau had not been given a copy of Foley’s application to the court.
The judge told Foley to take the time between hearings to seek new legal representation and to provide Cab with the application and affidavit.
In the affidavit, Foley said that the home due to be repossessed is his family home where he lives with his wife and daughter.
He said an application for an appeal of the order allowing Cab to sell the home had been listed for hearing in December, but that this was “outside the period of the existing stay”.
This meant that there was a “serious risk” that his home could be seized by Cab prior to the appeal being heard which could “cause serious prejudice” to Foley and his family, and could make the decision “impossible to reverse”.
“I am not seeking this stay for the purpose of delaying the proceedings indefinitely,” he said in an affidavit read onto the court record, instead he was seeking to be given time for his appeal to be heard.
The stay on the sale of his family home was due to expire on Thursday, September 10th, but the judge ordered an extension of the stay until Friday and adjourned the hearing until that date.
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.
