LONDON // Neofitos “Thomas” Efremi funded his crack cocaine addiction through a life of crime and his disability living allowance.
The 57-year-old crook boasted that he could fetch high prices on the black market as a “handler” of stolen goods.
Hammer-wielding maniac Philip Spence regularly went to Efremi's north London flat where the pair would get high and plot how to get their next cash injection.
Efremi gave him clothes, including the black blazer and brown leather jacket Spence wore when he carried out his savage attack on the three Emirati sisters. He even supplied the hammer to Spence and traces of his blood were found on the handle of the weapon. Efremi insists he hurt himself in a DIY accident at his home.
The father-of-three has been addicted to hard drugs for 15 years but claims to have been clean for the last five months.
He treated Spence like a “son”, taught him how to “wash-up” crack and fixed him up with drugs just an hour after the hotel attack.
In return, Spence had helped him with DIY and contacted his estranged daughter on Facebook. Spence also stole meat, which Efremi would sell to his neighbours.
He had stayed at Efremi’s flat three times in the week leading up to the brutal attack. But their cosy relationship was shattered on the night Spence took the hammer and bludgeoned his defenceless victims.
Turning on Efremi, Spence blurted to police: “You know the only person you should hold is Tom, yeah.”
Efremi repeatedly exploded with anger in the witness box, branding Spence a “monster” and a “spoilt brat”.
Minutes after Spence returned to his flat from the hotel robbery, Efremi withdrew £5,000 (Dh29,682) in cash using cards stolen from the Emirati women.
Two days later, surveillance cameras captured Efremi splashing out on a new mobile phone and making purchases in a sports shop in Angel, north London.
Efremi refused to be interviewed by police after his arrest but said he knew Spence as a “hotel creeper”. He later insisted that if Spence had attacked the women, “he deserves everything he gets”.
The drug addict has racked up 19 previous convictions, including two for violent offences. In 1974, he was convicted of assault and, five years later, for carrying an offensive weapon.
Most recently he was convicted for shoplifting in March. In June 2009 he was convicted for possession of a false UK passport after trying to withdraw £18,000 from a NatWest bank.
In 2011, Efremi obtained details of a managing director at a Lloyds bank and used them to request a new bank cards under the assumed name.
In 2013 and 2014, he notched up further convictions for shoplifting but he maintained throughout the trial he had no interest in burglary.
Efremi walks with a crutch, suffers multiple health problems and was rushed to hospital during the trial with suspected high blood pressure.
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