Terry Adams’s luxury lifestyle was paid for by his wife

Former crime boss Terry Adams is attempting to avoid paying back £700,000 of criminal cash claiming his ‘luxurious lifestyle’ is funded by his actress wife.

The 62-year-old was ordered to hand over £750,000 after he was jailed for money laundering in 2007 following a huge investigation by police and security services.

He has repaid a total of around £360,000 from the sale of his £1.5million home in Mill Hill, north London, and from antiques and jewellery found by police in the lavish property.

But he still owes more than £700,000, and could face another four years in jail if he fails to pay.

In 2014, a High Court judge dismissed claims he was penniless and what he described as ‘living like a ponce’ on handouts from family and friends.

Adams is appealing the decision and his lawyer Ivan Krolick today (Thurs) argued spending on five star hotels, exclusive restaurants, shopping trips and holidays was down to his wife, Ruth Adams.

‘The learned judge has held that Mr and Mrs Adams have a luxurious lifestyle,’ he said.

‘There is no evidence of any expenditure by Mr Adams. Whereas Mr Adams had his share of his former home paid as part of his confiscation order, Mrs Adams received her share into a bank account and spent it.

‘Some of us may say she spent it on unnecessary things.’

Mr Kennedy Talbot, representing the Crown Prosecution Service, detailed the Adams’s visits to the Dorchester, the Ivy, the Royal Opera House and the Groucho Club, dining at family favourite Brown’s in Mayfair some 20 times.

Other expenses included £12,000 dental treatment, a £2,800 weight loss programme and Mrs Adams and her daughter’s trips to China and the Hilton Hotel.

Mr Krolick argued: ‘This was not luxurious living by Mr Adams. If it was luxurious, it was by Mrs Adams with her own money…She gave evidence she worked.

‘She had a limited company. She was an actress and has, I think, appeared in a West End play, or at least in the West End.’

The court heard that after being released from prison in July 2012 Adams had found ‘design work’ for a Hatton Garden jeweller and as a clothes designer for his wife’s online fashion company, N1 Angel.

But Mr Talbot branded the roles ‘bogus employment’, and said Adams was paid £1,600 a week just to make ‘crude drawings’ of jewellery designs.

He was introduced to the jeweller by his ill-fated financial advisor Solly Nahome.

‘Nothing was ever produced…He was just paid this money,’ he said, adding that Mr Nahome was ‘shot dead outside Mr Adams’ house during the course of the criminal investigation’.

An employee at N1 Angel had described Adams as a ‘design genius’, but Mr Talbot said the work amounted to ‘moving buttons around on coats’.

The court heard the business made ‘no real money at all’ despite a £35,000 investment from Dale Golder, ‘who on any view was a shadowy figure’.

Almost £100,000 was handed to Mrs Adams in ‘loans’ from friends and family members.

Mr Talbot said she splashed out on a £500 dress from Harvey Nichols after her mother transferred her last £3,000 into her bank account.

Prosecutors say the judge was right to throw out Adams’ bid to reduce the amount of money he should repay.

mfl