'A-team' gangster boss pleads guilty
metrowebukmetroTuesday 6 Feb 2007 6:59 pm
One of Britain's most feared crime bosses was warned today he faced a lengthy jail sentence after admitting money laundering.
Terry Adams, who is said to have run the so-called A-Team with brothers Tommy and Patsy, spent years cleaning up the money with the help of a jeweller later murdered by a contract killer.
His dramatic change of plea came on the eve of what was to have been a three-four-month trial at London's Blackfriars Crown Court.
The 52-year-old, once described by a gangland torture victim as looking like "a cross between Liberace and Peter Stringfellow", also faced a series of alleged mortgage and tax deceptions.
These were allowed to "lay on the file" following legal argument which resulted in his wife and co-defendant, Ruth, walking free.
The offences denied by the 46-year-old, whose perforated bowel and near death last year forced a 12-month adjournment of the case, were also left on file.
Following Adams's plea of guilty to one of nine counts he had faced, Judge Timothy Pontius refused a defence application for bail, saying jail was inevitable.
"The extent and seriousness of the criminal activity represented by the defendant's plea of guilty … mean that a prison sentence of considerable length is wholly inevitable and the risks of granting bail far too great," he added.
Earlier a third defendant, Joanna Barnes, 38, of Dukes Avenue, Finchley, north London, admitted one count of forgery involving a £15,000 loan agreement.
Following her plea, Andrew Mitchell QC, prosecuting, announced the Crown would not be proceeding on five other charges she denied.
She was allowed bail. So, too, was a fourth person in the dock, who still faces trial. He cannot be named for legal reasons.
Although the case was not opened, the court was told the other charges he had faced were effectively "stepping stones" to the count he admitted to.
Only one of them, an allegation of furnishing false information, mentioned a figure.
That referred to a false mortgage application form showing a company called Skye Consultancy Limited had been established for eight years and enjoyed a profit of £120,000 for each of the last three years.
The crook of Hendon Wood Lane, Mill Hill, north west London, had been at the centre of a lengthy investigation of someone regarded as an underworld king who was thought to be untouchable.
His guilty plea not only spared the public purse the expense of a complex trial, but is understood to have saved any jury trying the case from round-the-clock armed police protection.
Fears that they might be intimidated during the case were so pronounced the public gallery was cocooned behind 6ft high screens.
Had the trial gone ahead the court would almost certainly have heard about "sophisticated" listening devices found in the Adams' living room, bedroom and loft.
One of them, hidden in a sofa and discovered just before Christmas 2005, was described by one of Mrs Adams' former defence barristers as "expensive, intrusive and remote controlled".
Andrew MitchellCleaningPatsyPeter StringfellowRuthTommy
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