Coffs Harbour: Steven Adams, 49, first kidnapper sentenced after potential ‘hot shot’ execution thwarted

A man has been sentenced after a police phone tap exposed a chilling kidnapping plot just in time to save a victim from a potential “hot shot” execution and bush burial after he was found bashed and bloodied in a child’s inflatable pool.

The Azalea Ave address where a man was kidnapped and assaulted on December 30, 2022.

A police phone tap exposed a chilling kidnapping plot just in time to save a victim from a potential “hot shot” execution and bush burial — with the first of two co-accused being sentenced in court.

The case, which reads like something out of Underbelly, complete with a forced BMW handover, a victim made to sit in a child’s inflatable pool while he was badly beaten and now living in witness protection, didn’t happen in Melbourne or Sydney.

Instead, the kidnapping of the then 38-year-old unfolded in a low-key suburban residence in the beachside tourist town of Coffs Harbour on the NSW Mid-North Coast.

Steven Adams is a co-accused convicted of kidnapping with intent, wounding and possess or use a prohibited weapon.

Last week Steven John Adams, 49, was the first of two men to be sentenced in Coffs Harbour District Court for kidnap in company with intent serious indictable occasioning actual bodily harm. Adams also had a charge of possess or use a prohibited a weapon without a permit.

In evidence before the court Adams admitted that “at the time he was probably off his face on ice”.

The property at Azalea Ave, Coffs Harbour is the location of the alleged kidnapping and assault.

In earlier evidence before the jury, the victim said he was a former carpenter and had attended the property on December 30, 2022, in his partner’s black BMW to retrieve some power tools.

The court heard that during his detainment the victim “was forced to sign a bill of sale for the motor vehicle in favour of the offender”.

Judge Michael McHugh said the offending was “serious” but wasn’t convinced there was any real planning of the kidnapping.

He outlined that Adams did harbour some form of a “grudge” against the victim and took an extendible baton to a backyard shed at the Azalea Ave address, using it to assault him from behind.

The kidnapping victim was found bashed in a child’s inflatable pool.

In sentencing, Mr McHugh took into account the way in which the detainment ended — with police intervention as a result of a phone tap exposing discussions to dispose of the victim with a “hot shot and bury him in the bush”.

“The victim was only freed in the form of the happenstance that police were listening in and they felt they needed to investigate,” Mr McHugh said.

He also noted the consequences of the “multiple acts of violent behaviour” and the “degree of terror” experienced by the “terrified” victim — who is now in witness protection, unable to see his children and unable to work.

Dean Hurst will face sentencing in May.

The victim’s injuries included two large lacerations to the head, a bone fracture to the nose, degloving on his left hand and damage to his shoulder requiring a shoulder reconstruction.

Adams had pleaded not guilty but was found guilty by the jury in the June-July trial.

In his closing statements, Mr McHugh drew attention to Adams’ “violent childhood”, a history of “repeated incarceration” with an “exemplary” custodial record and that he had support from his fiancee during the trial.

“He has realistic prospects of rehabilitation and also remorse which I take into account,” Mr McHugh said.

McHugh handed down an aggregate sentence of seven and a half years, commencing from December 30, 2022 and ending on June 29, 2030 – with a non-parole period of four years.

Co-accused Dean Hurst, convicted of kidnap in company with intent serious indictable occasioning actual bodily harm and use a prohibited weapon contrary to a prohibition order, faces Coffs Harbour District Court for sentencing on May 8, 2025.

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Originally published as Coffs Harbour: Steven Adams, 49, first kidnapper sentenced after potential ‘hot shot’ execution thwarted