CAB target Troy Jordan dodges motor ban after pleading guilty to insurance charge

Jordan, sporting an injured nose, appeared before the court charged with a single charge of driving without insurance at Downings North in Prosperous, Kildare on August 26, 2020 – after a number of associated charges were dropped.

Sgt Brian Jacob told the court that Jordan was stopped at 3.15pm on that date by gardai conducting a checkpoint. He said the defendant was driving a 2016 registered Black Audi A6.

Sgt Jacob said the officers made a lawful demand of Jordan that he produce his driving licence and insurance.

He continued that Jordan had produced a document but gardai weren’t satisfied that this covered him to drive the vehicle in question.

He said gardai believed the insurance documents covered Jordan to drive a different vehicle while residing at a UK address.

“When we checked it out,” he continued, “it was accepted that it did not cover him to drive that car on that date.”

Sgt Jacob told the court that Mr Jordan had no previous convictions for no insurance. He said the defendant did have 16 previous convictions.

Most of these, he said, were for minor traffic matters.

Counsel for Jordan, Aishling Murphy, said she would be asking the court to use its discretion in not imposing a disqualification.

She said the court had already heard there was a policy in place at the time and her client was not aware this policy did not cover him to drive this vehicle, by virtue of the fact it was a garage vehicle.

“Mr Jordan,” she said, “is not someone who gets behind the wheel without being fully insured, Judge.

“He is a gentleman who is working at the moment in the horse trade and he needs his licence.”

She said her client wanted to apologise to the court for his oversight and would ask that he not be disqualified.

Judge Cephas Power said he would deal with the matter by way of a €350 fine allowing the defendant two months to pay.

Jordan is currently appealing a five-month sentence and four-year disqualification handed down to him in February after being convicted of driving an English registered Mercedes without insurance at Prosperous Road in Clane, Co Kildare on May 19, 2020.

His appeal is scheduled to take place in December.

Jordan has previously been closely linked to some of Ireland’s most notorious criminal figures, including John Gilligan.

He was twice arrested by gardai investigating the murder of Latvian woman Baiba Saulite in Swords in 2006. but he was never a suspect in the case.

Jordan helped start The Viper Debt Recovery and Repossession Services in 2005, although he resigned as a director in June 2010.

During her unsuccessful legal battle with the Criminal Assets Bureau, Geraldine Gilligan told the High Court in 2008 that her only income was €5,000 a year she received from Jordan “for grass”.

Previously, Jordan has described himself as a horse breeder in his legal battles with the CAB. He is currently challenging a €800,000 demand from the Bureau and has taken his case to the Supreme Court.