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£5m legal aid bill for crime family ‘brains’
THE “brains” behind a crime family’s empire has been told to hand over £5.5 million.
While former Smithfield meat market porter Terry Adams serves a seven-year sentence (he is appealing against its length) imposed last month, his finances are to be rigorously investigated for the next decade.
With his brothers, Adams ran a much-feared criminal empire. They raked in fortunes – most of it alleged to be from international
drugs deals.
Although detectives have been targeting Adams for years, it
took a tax evasion investigation to finally get him in the Old Bailey dock. Known simply as ‘the Organisation,’ the Adams boys, originally from Clerkenwell, moved to dominate their ‘Caley Manor’ – a stretch of the Caledonian Road where they still have roots.
Prosecutor Andrew Mitchell, QC, told the court: “Terry Adams was one of the country’s most feared and revered organised criminals. He comes with a pedigree, as one of a family whose name had a currency all of its own in the underworld.”
As the 52-year-old – said to have made enough loot to enable him to retire at 35 – listened stone-faced, Mr Mitchell added that the Adams name was fiercely guarded, like a company trademark.
Investigators from the Inland Revenue joined specialist crime squad detectives and MI5 agents to gather enough evidence to prosecute Adams for laundering £1.1 million.
“He always thought he was above the law,” said Mr Mitchell, describing how a raid was carried out in 2003 on his
£2 million home near Barnet.
Adams pleaded
guilty to conspiracy to launder proceeds of crime between 1997 and 2003.
He was ordered to
pay £750,000 in compensation and £50,000 prosecution costs. But the largest sum, imposed within the past few days, is for a £4.7 million legal aid bill for top QCs, junior counsel and solicitors in the four years since his arrest.
Judge Timothy Pontius told Adams to submit accounts each year to the prosecution authorities until 2017.
“The evidence demonstrates many years of lucrative criminality,” said Judge Pontius. |
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