Accountant steals £1.7m from the Bermuda Government and buys expensive cars and a string of properties

An accountant who stole £1. 7m from the Bermuda Government faces losing his pension after being ordered to repay more than £600,000 to the island. Jeffrey Bevan, 55, fiddled the books after moving abroad with his headmistress wife and children to work as a payment manager for the Accountant General of Bermuda.

He made more than 50 fake payments straight into his own bank account – and manipulated the system to cover his tracks. He then spent the cash he’d laundered on Mercedes Benz cars, a string of properties, paying off his £140,000 mortgage along with gambling away £500,000. Bevan was jailed for a total of seven years and four months – and a Proceeds of Crime hearing in 2019 ruled he had more than £650,000 to hand back.

Read more court stories here Having served half his sentence Bevan was released from prison but returned to court this week as prosecutors seek to recoup more money from him. It is understood they are seeking funds from Bevan’s pension now he is aged 55 – so they can redistribute more cash to his victims. Cardiff Crown Court heard Bevan believed it was “unjust” to revisit the sum owed but prosecutors have asked for a further hearing.

Prosecutor Tim Evans said: “In emails Mr Bevan set out his position simply and robustly. He indicated that he had been in contact with solicitors and his position is it would be unjust to add to or to revisit the possession of assets. ” A judge ordered Bevan to appear in court again next month so a new hearing date could be set.

During Bevan’s trial in 2018 Mr Evans told how the accountant moved to Bermuda in 2011 for the £80,000-a-year role. Mr Evans said: “Mr Bevan was dishonestly involved in the fraudulent transfer of nearly two and half million dollars of money belonging to the Bermudan people, which had been covered up by being in the names of other organisations. ” But not long after he left in May 2013, Bevan’s ex-colleagues spotted a series of fake payments which led them back to his account.

Experts were then called in to examine the system where they discovered Bevan’s tampering. Mr Evans added: “Mr Bevan had gone by then. He went because he knew that he was about to be rumbled for a massive fraud.

Alarm bells obviously rang. They thought they had better contact Mr Bevan who they had worked with for over two years and trusted. ” An investigation back in Bermuda uncovered a series of bogus payments including $89,000 (dollars) to Chevron International and another for $71,000 (dollars) to the Sylvia Richardson Care facility.

In total, 49 payments had been made into Bevan’s personal account, before being transferred into a UK account and lavishly spent on cars and properties. The three other payments were made into another account. The court heard he stole $2.

4m Bermudan dollars but spent more than $400,000 on the island. He sent $2m to Britain which is about £1. 3m on the rates of the time.

Bevan moved to Bermuda in 2011 for the £80,000-a-year role on the sunshine island (Image: PA) Father-of-two Bevan initially claimed that the payments he received were for overtime – in that he was working an extra 50 hours on top of his 35 week. He had previously denied the laundering, but dramatically changed his plea after the first day of his predicted eight week trial. Cash transferred from the government account was used to buy two Mercedes Benz cars for £30,000, a property in Newport, two flats in Glasgow, six properties in Swansea and two units in Nottingham.

Mr and Mrs Bevan’s £140,000 mortgage was also paid off. Mr Evans added that Bevan – who has also worked for the BBC and Welsh Government – was a “gambling addict”, with a “fascination with risk and trying to win big”. Bookmaker Paddy Power revealed he had made 18,853 bets online between November 2008 and May 2014.

Bevan deposited more than £2m into his account on the site, later withdrawing £1,539,400 – with the account left empty. Bevan, of Cwmbran, admitted three counts of transferring criminal property and 10 counts of converting criminal property. He was jailed at Cardiff Crown Court and a judge ordered an investigation into his finances.

However Bermudan authorities will not seek to extradite Mr Bevan given that the money was laundered into and spent in the UK. The Proceeds of Crime hearing in 2019 was told that he gained a total of £1,742,044. 50 through his criminal activity and had £688,090.

53 available for confiscation. Judge Fitton ordered him to pay £654,757. 19 in compensation to the Government of Bermuda.

Speaking at the time, Juliette Simms, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “Bevan wholly exploited his trusted position as an accountant to take money from a government body. “Not content with taking taxpayers’ money he also took money from his own mother and spent the stolen funds ostentatiously on racehorses, luxury cars, and gambling. The CPS has helped to secure the property obtained by Bevan’s criminal activity and will now be able to ensure these funds are returned to his family and for the benefit of the people of Bermuda.

” Bevan received a further 18-month prison sentence in November last year for stealing £50,000 from his own mother. He was ordered to pay £33,333. 34 in compensation to his brother Jason Bevan.

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