A member of one of Britain’s most notorious crime families has been accused of helping finance a £20million tax fraud.

Tommy Adams, 67, became notorious for his role in controlling the Clerkenwell Syndicate alongside his brothers Terry, 70, and Patrick, 69.

The gang operated through extortion, drug dealing and money laundering and was linked to at least 25 murders.

It has now been revealed Tommy Adams was also allegedly involved in an international tax fraud by company directors and accountants.

A trial at Southwark Crown Court heard there had been a meeting between white collar fraudsters at a hotel in Manchester in September 2013 – which HM Revenue & Customs investigators bugged.

It was there that one of the fraudsters discussed having a four-hour conversation with Adams in London as other co-conspirators became increasingly nervous at upsetting the gangster.

The trial heard Adams had allegedly been demanding £450,000 he was owed as part of the operation which made £20.8million in less than three years in total.

Twenty ring members were convicted of money laundering or conspiracy to cheat the public revenue by inducing or facilitating the submission of false VAT returns between 2011 and 2014 in four trials that concluded on Monday last week.

As part of a separate operation, Adams was convicted of money laundering in 2017 after undercover police set up listening devices in Andrews Restaurant in Holborn, central London.

He was caught laundering nearly £250,000 from ‘criminal activity’ during which time he used runners to move cash from Manchester to London between 2012 and 2014.

Adams was previously cleared of laundering some of the £26million of gold bullion stolen in the 1983 Brink’s Mat raid – and he was not prosecuted over his alleged role.

Financing for the £20million tax fraud operation in which Adams stands accused of being involved was provided by Warren Bartlett, 51, who invested £350,000.

His company, Bartel Networks, was used to process £6.5million of the evaded VAT on £32million of orders.

Bartlett, who lives in a £1.4million home registered in the name of his girlfriend in Ongar, Essex, recruited other businessmen to invest in the fraud, also using the discredited former police officer, Jerry Young, to produce a fake report for HMRC.

Speaking at the trial, Judge Dafna Spiro said: ‘The conspiracy was complex and highly sophisticated, involving numerous individuals, companies, strands and layers: some in plain sight and others hidden beneath a multitude of veils.’

She explained Bartlett had been actively involved in recruiting others willing to invest up to $1million (£750,000), The Times reports.

The judge added: ‘The “investors” were effectively “priming the pump” to get the fraud running and to keep it turning over, and the returns on their investment would come from the stolen VAT.’

Fraudsters used networks involving companies around the world including the UK, the US, the Czech Republic, Spain, Cyprus, Canada, Vietnam, Hong Kong and the Seychelles.

They centred their operations around a company called Winnington Networks Ltd, based in Crewe, Cheshire. It submitted 18 VAT returns, in which more than £20million owed to HMRC was not paid.

The fraud was carried out through dishonestly offsetting VAT paid on fake purchases of ‘voice over internet protocol’ technology against tax the company would otherwise have paid on electrical and metal dealing.

Masterminds behind the operation were John Fenton, 66, and Neil Pursell, 60, the owners and directors of Winnington. Both have been jailed for nine years.

The fraud was openly discussed at secret meetings in hotels where conspirators told of how they could just ‘invent the numbers’ to falsely offset their output VAT claims.

One fraud gang member – William Lindfield – was previously embroiled in a blackmail case featuring Tommy Adams, Paul Stretford – the agent for then-England footballer Wayne Rooney – and Kenny Dalglish, the former Scotland and former Liverpool player and manager.

Stretford attended a meeting with associates of the rival agent to discuss Rooney’s contracts, Warrington crown court was told in 2005.

Adams, who had recently finished a seven-and-a-half-year prison sentence for drug smuggling was present at meetings at the Novotel near Euston, central London, and Le Meridien Hotel at Heathrow Airport in November 2002.

Lindfield has claimed Adams was invited by Dalglish, director of football operations at Stretford’s Proactive Sports Management agency.