*Aladdin's cave of stolen treasures.

On June 1st I wrote that I doubted the tales of crooked millionaire collectors. Well now it seems that I may have been wrong and that one hoard was in a mansion in Mill Hill, only a few miles away from where I live.

A treasure trove of stolen art and antiques, was discovered in the £2m mansion belonging to the London crime boss Terry Adams, in 2003.

When detectives arrested the north London godfather they found what they later described as an Aladdin's cave of treasures gracing his home. Most of the property was found to have been stolen from country houses, art galleries and museums over the last 10-15 years.

Working with the Art Loss Register and officers from the arts and antiques squad at Scotland Yard, detectives managed to trace the owners of £274,000 worth of the stolen art and antiques art.

The Art Loss Register, holds details of 170,000 items of stolen art and antiques on its database.

The Adams brothers ran the most feared crime group in North London.

Adams was ordered last month to pay £4.7m for legal costs over four years.