Dashing burglar
Opera singing former City trader breaks into 130 homes...but his mum says he’s a lovely boy really
As a privately educated former City trader with a penchant for opera singing – not to mention model good looks – David Adams seems to be the perfect young man.
however, you should never judge a book by its cover.
The dashing 33-year-old is actually one of the country’s most notorious burglars, responsible for more than 130 break-ins across southern england.
The university graduate’s life spiralled out of control after a recruitment agency he owned went bust and he turned to gambling and then burglary to pay his debts.
since 2013, he has carried out 138 burglaries, mostly on rural homes.
A court heard he meticulously planned his raids, visiting the villages before and recording in a notebook the position of blinds and curtains of homes to target. After the break-ins he always left his victims’ homes ‘nice and tidy’.
Yesterday his mother said he was a ‘lovely man’, adding: ‘It’s just like there are two completely different sides to him.’
he is not the first criminal whose looks have drawn more attention than his charge sheet. us thug Jeremy Meeks was branded the ‘hot felon’ when his police mugshot went viral on the internet. he has struck up a relationship with Topshop heiress Chloe Green and featured in a publicity cam- paign for the fashion chain.
Adams had previously served time in prison for 80 break-ins carried out in 2013 and 2014 in surrey, Dorset, and hampshire.
After being released in september 2015 he set up another recruitment agency that specialised in the water sports industry. But that venture also failed and he went back to burglary.
Between november 2016 and August 2017, he single-handedly increased the burglary rate threefold in some rural areas, stealing cash and jewellery from 58 homes in the new Forest. sentencing him to five years and four months at Bournemouth Crown Court on Tuesday, Judge Brian Forster QC told Adams: ‘This case is a tragedy for you. You are clearly a person of ability. You went to university. You have had opportunities in your life that many people would love to have.’
Yesterday the crook’s mother Teresa Adams- stairs, 64, said: ‘he’s my son and you have to stand by him no matter how big an idiot he’s been. I just feel so sorry for those people who came home to find their possessions had been taken. David handed himself into police the second time round and the officer said he couldn’t believe he was a burglar, he was so different to what they were used to.
‘he’s a lovely man and he’s so creative. It’s just like there are two completely different sides to him.’
she added: ‘When I was told he had been arrested again it came as a huge shock because I thought he had learnt his lesson.’
Adams, who has a music performance degree from southampton solent university, was educated at the Duke of Kent rAF school in ewhurst, surrey, and the stanbridge earls school in romsey, hampshire.
The burglar, of Poole, Dorset, admitted 14 burglaries. A further 44 burglary offences were taken into consideration.
While on remand in prison for his latest spate of burglaries, he took part in a prison production of Les Miserables. he played the role of a bishop who took pity on the criminal Jean Valjean when he was caught stealing silver. Producers Pimlico Opera told a judge they saw ‘great promise’ in Adams.
Jonathan reuben, defending, said: ‘The defendant targeted houses that appeared empty.
‘Mr Adams is a proud man not always able to admit failure or ask for help, despite coming from a supportive family.’
A letter written by Adams was read to the court in which he said he ‘tries too hard to be likeable’.
he wrote: ‘I am so sorry for my actions and I hope one day I can put things right and be forgiven.’
A psychiatric report highlighted the defendant’s ‘gross persistence of irresponsible behaviour and disregard for social norms’.