Crime boss offloading home to avoid prison
A NOTORIOUS gangster is scrambling to sell his home to avoid a further seven years in jail for failing to repay a £1.2million confiscation order.
Last year Tommy Adams, 63, a member of London’s Clerkenwell crime syndicate, was ordered to hand over profits from a moneylaundering racket. The gang’s second-in-command, Tommy used trusted couriers to smuggle hundreds of thousands of pounds in dirty cash up and down Britain.
But the underworld boss was brought down as part of a Scotland Yard operation and is now serving a seven-year jail term for money laundering.
He has paid back £277,613.20, leaving a balance of £965,657.55 plus interest.
At a proceeds of crime hearing last month Adams agreed to sell a property he owns in the capital to help settle the remaining demand and avoid further jail time.
CPS officials say the sale of the home – thought to be in east London – should satisfy a substantial amount of the order. But it will still be up to a judge at a hearing next month to decide whether Adams has to serve an extra seven years if the remainder he owes is not repaid in full.
Previously, detectives described Adams as living a “ghost-like” existence, amid suspicions he had successfully concealed the full scale of his empire. Investigators found Adams lived like a king with lavish holidays, cars and clothes, despite having “no financial footprint”.
Also known as the A-team, the feared Adams family dominated
Britain for more than 30 years, with lesser criminals “franchising” its name for kudos. Adams was in the crime syndicate with brothers Terry, 66, and Patrick, 65.
Last year, an extra £100,000 was added to the sum he must repay after a police bug in a cafe caught him boasting about planning a new home in Cyprus. He was jailed for seven years in 2017 on two counts of conspiracy to transfer criminal property and one count of conspiracy to conceal criminal property.
Patrick is currently serving a nine-year jail term for a shooting.
“Godfather” of the clan, Terry, was locked up for seven years in 2007 after being convicted of money laundering following a £10million police surveillance operation. He was released halfway through his sentence but ordered to pay back nearly £750,000.
David Spencer, at the Centre of Crime Prevention, said: “Tommy Adams’ criminal career has netted him millions. It is quite right the CPS should be going after him for every penny of his ill-gotten gains.”