A Welsh accountant has pleaded guilty to laundering almost $1.8 million stolen from the Bermuda Government.

Jeffrey Bevan, 50, from Cwmbran, admitted transferring the money into his own bank account, using it to buy homes, a Mercedes car and fund his gambling habit.

Bevan pleaded guilty to three counts of transferring criminal property and ten charges of converting criminal property during an appearance in Cardiff Crown Court.

Two men from Leicester — Joel Ishmael, 42, and Paul Charity, 52 — remain on trial, accused of working with Bevan to launder the money.

Mr Charity has also denied a charge of perverting the course of justice.

Their trial is expected to last another week, a report on Wales Online said yesterday.

Bevan worked in the Bermuda Accountant-General’s office for nearly three years before leaving the island to return to Wales.

Prosecutors alleged that he made 52 payments totalling nearly $2.5 million into his own personal account over that time.

He later transferred about $1.8 million — which Bevan accepted was criminal property — to his account in the UK.

An investigation launched after Bevan left Bermuda revealed the series of bogus payments.

These included a $71,000 transfer that appeared to have gone to a care home and another of $89,000 in the name of management services consulting firm Chevron International.

But prosecutor Timothy Evans told the court the investigation revealed that the payments had gone into Mr Bevan’s HSBC account in Bermuda.

Bevan at first claimed he had earned the money through overtime and that he had worked up to 50 hours extra a week.

Mr Evans said Bevan “gambled away” some of the cash and used £140,000 to pay off the mortgage on his family home.

The court also heard Bevan spent about £700,000 on cars, houses and flats, including properties in Newport, Glasgow and Nottingham.

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