The family of a motorbiker who died in a horror crash has warned potential victims to avoid Scotland's most persistent fantasist, Anthony Adams, at all costs. Adams convinced the family of Josh Crawford that he was Josh's best friend and even concocted a story about Josh's last words to his distraught mum, Margaret.
Adams told Margaret that Josh had revealed in his last hours that he was to be a dad, but that was made up. The lying schemer was so convincing that he was invited to be a pallbearer at the funeral of 27-year-old Josh at Park Church in Ardrossan, Ayrshire. After his lies unravelled, Adams was sentenced to six months in prison, with a sheriff telling him: "The alarm and distress you caused to the family is unimaginable."
Family speaks out after Adams still operating
The Daily Record has reported on a torrent of scams run by the Ayrshire-based trickster, who has posed as a doctor, a Celtic FC scout, and a private ambulance entrepreneur. Last month, it was revealed he is seeking work as an exorcist. Now Josh's family have decided to speak out over Adams' 2024 conviction for conning them, after finding out he is still operating in the community.
Margaret, 60, and her daughter Afton, 34, have relived the "surreal" and appalling interactions with Adams after they encountered him in a corridor at Crosshouse Hospital, where he was posing as a doctor. Margaret said: "The way this man treated us was beyond the comprehension of most people and we are still scarred by the contact we had with him. Anyone reading this should take a good look at his face and avoid at all costs because this guy cannot stop his mad boasting and tall tales. The lies he spun to us were cruel and nasty. There are always victims when he gets his hooks into people."
Adams exploited grief with cruel lies
Margaret said she was forced to battle her own grief and become a sleuth like "Miss Marple" to get to the bottom of 31-year-old Adams' deceptions when they did not stack up. She said: "This guy introduced himself as Tony at such a vulnerable moment for us, just as we were facing up to the reality of losing Josh. We were all over the place. He obviously had some knowledge of Josh and he started ingratiating himself. He was saying, 'I remember staying at your house, Maggie,' and he came out with details like us having scaffolding that he climbed on. Then he started going on about how he loved the home dinners I cooked for him and Josh, which set all sorts of bells ringing because my son was a very picky basic eater, and I didn't remember him. He was homing in on my extreme vulnerability and thinking I'd be looking for comfort during the crisis of losing my son. It really was sick."
Adams gained knowledge about Josh's accident because his own mother had been a paramedic who attended when Josh was thrown from his motorbike in front of Margaret's house in June 2022. He died in hospital four days later. Appallingly, Adams used Margaret's grief to weave a cruel deception, telling her Josh's last words were: "Please don't let me die because I'm going to be a dad again." Josh had actually told Margaret: "I love you, Mum." These were words she would cherish.
Family still scarred, urges caution
The family were sent into a spin, seeking answers to the nasty baby hoax and who the mother could be. Even after Adams made a callous appearance at Josh's funeral, he failed to hand over £2,000 he'd raised for Josh's family, claiming he had monkeypox and was in quarantine. Margaret said: "You couldn't make up what this man did to us but by the time he got jailed he couldn't even look at us. We were very relieved when he got a jail sentence because after we'd rumbled him he totally changed and got all defiant. He sent me a message saying he'd never get jail because he had a personality disorder and that allowed him to get off with it before."
She added: "He doesn't seem to have any feelings for victims or any remorse for the people he sucks into his web of lies. People should take a long, hard look at his photograph and make sure they don't believe a word he says if they ever come into his orbit." Afton is still furious at Adams's coldness. She said: "It's hard to believe we believed anything he said but you have to see this guy in action. He's utterly shameless, a cold-blooded, compulsive liar."
