In a ruling which underlined the maxim that crime does not pay, a notorious former crime boss has failed to convince the High Court that he is almost penniless and should be let off a £650,000 confiscation bill.
Terence George Adams, a highly successful criminal and well known as such, was jailed for seven years for money laundering in 2007 and hit with a £750,000 confiscation order. The order embraced all that prosecutors could find of Adams' criminally-tainted assets – including his matrimonial home and his collection of cars, jewellery, antiques and art, as well as almost £60,000 in cash.
He had since paid almost £365,000 of that sum after receivers seized and sold all his visible trappings of wealth. However, with interest, £651,611 remained outstanding, to which interest was still being added at a rate of £83 per day.
In seeking a certificate of inadequacy, which would have absolved him from having to pay the balance of the sum due, Adams argued that he had ‘paid his price to society’. He said that he and his wife, Ruth, were living in a small rented flat and surviving on her £200-a-week earnings and the occasional loan from family and friends.
However, in dismissing the application, the Court pointed to the couple’s lifestyle since Adams’ release – including eating out at restaurants, visits to a luxury hotel spa, designer clothes, costly dental treatment and nights out at the opera and the theatre – which revealed their ‘liking for the more expensive items of life’.
The judge concluded, “I am not satisfied that Terence Adams has provided full and candid disclosure to the court as to the assets held in July 2014 which fund his life and that of his wife. I believe that there are financial matters known peculiarly to Terence Adams which are not before the Court. I am not satisfied that the current assets of Terence Adams are worth less than the outstanding balance of the confiscation order.”