A member of one of Britain’s most notorious crime families has been ordered to hand back over £1.2million of his ‘dirty’ money or face a further seven years behind bars.
Thomas ‘Tommy’ Adams, 64, was jailed for seven and a half years for drug trafficking after his money laundering operation with accomplices was foiled in 2014.
Today, Adams has been ordered to to repay his benefit, assessed as £1,243,270.75, in full by 26 May this year.

Thomas ‘Tommy’ Adams (left) has been ordered to pay back £1.2million or face a further seven years behind bars. Croydon Crown Court (pictured right) found he had properties in London and Cyprus that were gained through criminal activity
Undercover police bugged popular cafe Andrew’s in Holborn Central to catch Adams, 59, discussing his criminal enterprise.
Couriers were watched by police exchanging an M&S bag containing thousands of pounds in cash at Euston Station owed to Adams.
He had helped run the ‘Clerkenwell Crime Syndicate’ with brother Terry, 62, and Patsy, 61, becoming one of the most powerful crime gangs in London.
They have been linked to over 25 murders while turning over millions in the drugs trade, through security fraud and hijacking gold bullion shipments.
Officers were investigating his money laundering operation, through which he collected cash owed to him for ‘criminal activity’ between 2012 and 2014.
Detectives compiled surveillance evidence including telephone data, covert recordings, and ledgers recording the criminal transactions.
Jurors found the convicted drug smuggler guilty of two counts of conspiracy to transfer criminal property and one count of conspiracy to conceal criminal property after a trial in August 2017.
The network was convicted for money laundering in two trials in 2017 and jailed for a total of 30 years.
Jurors had heard how Adams shipped nearly a quarter of a million pounds using runners to move the dirty money from Manchester to London.
Since 2000, the Adams family’s influence has been declining, but Tommy carved out a niche from his money laundering enterprise.
Co-defendant Christos Nicholas, 52, was caught with £99,000 as he drove through north London in convoy with Elias Antoniou, 53, on 10 October 2013.
Nicholas was was convicted of transferring criminal property and jailed for two-and-a-half years, while Antoniou was given two years for the same crime
Robert Winstanley, 77, was stopped with £10,000 cash wrapped in tin foil at Euston Station, central London, on 22 May 2013, and was Oakmere, Cheshire, was also convicted of transferring criminal property and handed a three-year term.
Adams spent the money on extravagant purchases including a £32,000 car for his daughter Terri, 35.
Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) lawyer Helen Hughes said: ‘Mr Adams was previously sentenced to seven-and-a-half years for drug trafficking, yet he still thought he was above the law.
‘Money lies at the centre of this criminality and today Mr Adams has been ordered to pay over £1.24m – handing over his dirty money for good or he faces a more time in jail.
‘If at any point in the future we identify that he has other assets and has benefited to a greater extent, then we will apply to the court to increase the order and make him pay more.
‘Criminals like this must be stopped, which is why we work tirelessly to get the highest confiscation orders available, so they can start to repay their debt to society.’
Tommy Adams has a string of previous convictions, most of which date back to the 1970s, before he was jailed for masterminding the huge drugs smuggling operation.