Former criminal Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch has ordered a new Rolls Royce for his thriving chauffeur and limo business, bucking the recessionary trend.

Hutch runs the limo business Carry Any Body ? a tongue-in-cheek allusion to the Criminal Assets Bureau (Cab) and his own past run-ins with the agency ? and already operates a fleet of vehicles which includes an S-class Mercedes, a stretch Hummer and a Lincoln Town car.

A Rolls Royce costs in the region of €20,000-€50,000.

The business which Hutch started in 2005 is understood to be going from strength to strength, despite the effects of the credit crunch.

Hutch declined to comment on his latest edition, but when he first opened the business he said, "There's an open market for this kind of thing and I want to fill the gap. We live in the new Ireland now and people are screaming out for this kind of thing."

Hutch is advertising the upgrading of his fleet online. He is currently selling a Hummer H3 Limo on the business's website. A message states: "This car selling due to upgrading fleet. All our vehicles are extremely well looked after and are maintained to the highest of standards."

According to the website, the Hummer has "all the usual bells and whistles in excellent condition" which notably include a mirrored ceiling, a disco floor, a bar, a plasma TV and a CD and DVD player.

Hutch imported his first stretch Hummer at the height of the Celtic Tiger, at an estimated cost of €150,000, but was last year forced to sell one of the vehicles for a knock-down price of €65,000. Features in some of his other cars include surround-sound TVs, DVD players and light shows.

The Monk, so-called due to his shunning of the drugs business since leaving prison in 1985, is said to have turned his back on crime after paying some €1.5m to the Cab as part of a tax settlement following an investigation into his financial affairs.

Alleged to have once been one of Ireland's most successful bank robbers, he was granted a taxi driver's licence for his E-series Mercedes in 2002 after a court ruling declared he was a tax-compliant citizen, but he later decided to open the Carry Any Body business.