Micky Adams gets 38 months for cheating the revenue of up to £568k

A member of the notorious Adams crime family syndicate has been jailed for 38 months for cheating the taxman by not declaring his income.

Father-of-four Michael ‘Micky’ Adams, 52, of the ‘Clerkenwell Crime Syndicate’ or ‘A-team’, confessed to lying to tax collectors for eight years.

The youngest of the Adams’ brothers, was arrested at his £1m Finchley home in April 2014.

The A-team is said to be one of the most powerful crime families in the country and is thought to be responsible for up to 25 murders.

Syndicate boss Terry Adams, 63, was jailed for seven years in 2007 for money laundering after MI5 bugged his home.

Tommy Adams, 57, was jailed for seven years in 2017 after he was convicted of laundering nearly £250,000.

He used a taxi firm to collect debts from gangsters in Manchester and police bugged a Holborn cafe to catch him discussing his criminal enterprise.

It can now be revealed that Michael Adams admitted one charge of cheating HMRC between 2006 and 2014 at Croydon Crown Court in January this year.

When he first appeared in court in 2015, he was reprimanded for chewing gum and told to put it in a pocket.

Deadpan, he stared back at the senior magistrate and replied ‘I’m not putting it in my pocket’.

Money laundering charges against his wife Deborah Heath, 50, were dropped after prosecutor Richard Sutton said: ‘By his plea Mr Adams has taken responsibility for failing to declare his income. We can see little public interest in proceeding against her.’

Michael’s mother-in-law Maureen Heath, 73, was said to be ‘not fit to plea’ to money laundering charges after she was examined by doctors.

Mr Sutton said:’Every month, £4,000 was paid into Mr Adams’ account. This, if you calculate it over a year, comes to £48,000.’

Adams, of (19) Windemere Avenue, Finchley, north London, admitted one charge of cheating HMRC.

Maureen Heath, of (72) Sylvia Court, Cavendish Street, Hackney, and Deborah Heath, also of (19) Windemere Avenue, Finchley, denied concealing, disguising, converting or transferring criminal property and the charge was dropped dropped.

Judge Nicholas Ainley said that Adams’ large income meant the taxman could have lost up to £568,000.

The judge said: ‘Over a period of time that started sometime in 2006 and went on to April 2014, Michael Adams, was hiding large quantities of money that was subject to income tax from the revenue.

‘This was done by movement of cash principally by receipts of money into bank accounts or into the bank accounts of others and there after he divided that money to his own use when some of it at least should have been accounted for.

‘The period of time was lengthy. The greatest loss was as long ago as 2008-09 when it is quite possible the block of it was lost.

‘It has proved extremely difficult to conclude what the total loss was- the prosecution arrived at a figure between £402,000 and £568,000 but the defence say that it is considerably less than that, but still in the 100,000s.

‘The case as it seems to me from what we have learnt listening to the case, that the loss could not have been reasonably shown to be less than £300,000 and it may have been more.’

ends