An accountant who admitted laundering a fortune stolen from the Bermuda Government has been jailed for seven years and four months by the Welsh courts.

Confiscation proceedings are now under way to recover the funds stolen from the island by Jeffrey Bevan during his time in the Bermuda Accountant-General’s office.

Bevan, 50, from Cwmbran, Wales, has been convicted of laundering £1.3 million, according to the Bermuda Police Service.

In total, $2.4 million in Bermuda currency were laundered through various bank accounts in Bermuda and the UK.

The conviction closes four years of joint investigations between the Organised and Economic Crime Department of the Bermuda Police Service and the Welsh authorities.

Bevan pleaded guilty to all 13 counts on the first day of his trial at Cardiff Crown Court.

Co-defendants Joel Ismail and Paul Charity, both from Leicester, who had also faced joint charges conspiring to launder money stolen from the Bermuda Government, were unanimously acquitted last week.

The court heard that Bevan, a qualified accountant, was employed as payments manager for the Bermuda Government between 2011 and 2013 on an annual salary of $112,000.

During that time he used his expertise to manipulate payments software system to steal $2.4 million in 52 separate thefts over two years.

Detective Superintendent Sean Field-Lament, head of the Crime Division of the Bermuda Police Service, thanked all who took part in the case. He said that there was “no doubt that as a result Bermuda is safer for the combined efforts demonstrated in this investigation”.

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