British accountant and his wife accused of fiddling £1.3m

A British accountant and his wife accused of fiddling £1.3million from the Bermuda Government to buy luxury cars and property claim it was ‘overtime’ for his £80,000 a year job.   

Jeffrey Bevan, 50, and his former headmistress wife Samantha, 52, are accused of laundering $2.4million in stolen cash to blow on their wealthy lifestyle.

A court heard qualified accountant Bevan began illegally taking taxpayers’ money after moving to sunshine island for an £80,000-a-year job as payments manager in office of the Accountant General of Bermuda.

Bevan is accused of making more than 50 bogus payments to himself before illegally transferring the money back to Britain in the name of the respectable married couple.

But he then quit his job after less than three years to move back to Wales – after having bought luxury Mercedes cars and a series of property investments around Britain.

Proseuctor Tim 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.’

The court heard the Bevans and their two children moved to Bermuda in January 2011 – with former headmistress Mrs Bevan starting as a teacher in a Bermuda school.

Their friend Joel Ismail (pictured left), 42, and financial advisor Paul Charity (right), 52, are also in the dock accused of taking part in the fraud

Bevan quit in May 2013 to return to Britain blaming his mother’s poor health and the children’s schooling as the reasons for his resignation.

But an investigation 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.

Mr Evans said: ‘Mr Bevan had gone by then. He went because he knew that he was about to be rumbled for a massive fraud.’

It showed payments had been made into the Bevans HSBC account in Bermuda.

Mr Evans said: ‘Alarm bells obviously rang. They thought they had better contact Mr Bevan who they had worked with for over two years and trusted.’

Cardiff Crown Court heard the investigation showed 52 bogus payments made to Bevan’s account in Bermuda before being transferred to Britain.

Pictured: The idyllic North Atlantic island of Bermuda, where the couple are accused of laundering money from 

Father-of-two Bevan claimed the payments to him were for overtime while working for the Bermuda government – saying he did up to 50 hours extra on top of his 35-hour week.

Mr Evans said: ‘His defence will be that every cent of the $2.4 million was effectively overtime, over and above his basic and overtime hours, presumably tax free, and paid voluntarily and legitimately by the Bermudan Government.’

The court heard he claimed he was on $400 per hour working 50 hours a week on top of his basic week.

Mr Evans said members of the Bermudan Government would give evidence against Bevan ‘about how ridiculous his claim is.’

Cash transferred from the government account was allegedly used to buy Mercedes Benz cars and properties in Newport, Swansea, Glasgow and Nottingham.

The married couple are also accused of using money to pay off their £140,000 mortgage.

Mr Evans said his wife must have realised something was going on by seeing the money pour into their join account.

He said: ‘She must have known from money flowing through accounts as well that their lifestyle that this family were not just about managing on their salaries.

The couple were arrested following a four-year international police investigation, involving the Bermuda (island pictured) Police Service and Regional Organised Crime Unit

‘She is an intelligent woman who had been headmistress. Her husband had amassed large amounts of money and she must have at the very least suspected that it was the proceeds of dishonest criminal conduct.’

Mr Evans told the jury he was being prosecuted in the UK because ‘put simply, he is over here. Bermuda cannot prosecute.’

‘Given that the original crimes alleged against him were on Bermuda soil he cannot be prosecuted for those back in the UK either.

‘It is a criminal offence to move the proceeds of a crime between bank accounts. Of the $2.4 million that went into their bank accounts in Bermuda, $441,995.63 appears to have been spent over there.

‘Of the balance of about $2 million it was transferred into UK bank accounts. £1,325,477.39 found its way to the UK. That is a criminal offence.’

Their friend Joel Ismail, 42, and financial advisor Paul Charity, 52, are also accused of taking part in the fraud.

Mr and Mrs Bevan, of Cwmbran, near Newport, South Wales, collectively deny thirteen counts of converting criminal property and three counts of transferring criminal property.

Ismail and Charity, both of Leicester, deny converting criminal property. Charity also denies perverting the course of justice.

Charity allegedly deleted e-mails to conceal them from the police investigation.

All four were granted bail. The trial, expected to last eight weeks, continues.