GERARD LEE BEVAN DEAD

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 June 1936, Page 4

GERARD LEE BEVAN DEAD

FAILURE AND TRIAL RECALLED.

HAVANA (Cuba), April 24

Mr Gerard Le Bevan, the British financier who was the central figure of a famous financial erdsh, and who was sentenced to seven years’ penal servitude in London in 1922, died in Havana to-night. Bevan, who was 66, was engaged in business in Havana.—B.U.P. Gerard Lee Bevan fled from London by aeroplane in February, 1922, following the failure of the City Equitable Fire Insurance Co., and other concerns, with liabilities totalling over .£4,000,000. He was a fugitive for five months, until he was caught in Vienna in June. He had disguised himself by growing a beard and was then known as Leon Vernier. ft was stated that at the time of his arrest Bevan •struggled violently and swallowed the contents of a phial. A stomach pump was immediately applied. Bevan was brought back to London and tried at the Old Bailey, where he was sentenced to seven years’ for fraud. He earned full remission, and was released in February 1927. On his release he went to France, where he married a Frenchwoman. In recent years he has lived in Havana, where he was the head of a distilling concern.