BEVAN GUILTY.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 December 1922, Page 5

BEVAN GUILTY.

SEVEN YEARS’ IAI PRISON Al ENT. PRISONER REMAINS CALM. By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. London. Dee. 5. Gerard Lee Bevan, chairman of the Equitable Insurance Company, has been sentenced to seven years' imprisonment on charges of falsifying balance-sheets. Received Dec. 6, 8.19 p.m. London, Dee. 5. The judge, summing up in the Bevan case, said Bevan gave no explanation of his leaving the country consistent with innocence. He said he was asked to go. hut he did not say by whom. What was the use of saying he left the country because he was asked to go? The judge told the jury they must not convict because Bevan left the country, but it was idle to say they mu.st shut out from consideration the fact that he left the country. It was not possible, added the judge, to believe a minute was signed by Bevan without his knowing the contents, unless it was signed with his ! eyes shut. Could there be any doubt that Bevan was the dominating spirit of the Fire Insurance Company. Reference was made to window dressing. There were two sorts of window dressing, one honest and the other -dishonest. and he hoped the sample referred to was not an everyday transaction in London. Bevan received the sentence with his normal pleasant expression and left the i Court dignified and apparently undaunted. Tljj foreman of the jury added that I they thought the offences were made possible because the other directors failed to do their duty.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable AsI soeiation.