A top Shell UK executive defrauded the company of

A top Shell UK executive defrauded the company of pds
stlng 259,000 to fund a secret jetset homosexual lifestyle, a
court heard today Friday.

Family man Michael Beach, 55, flew to exotic locations
across Europe, India and America with a string of male lovers
for three years, Southwark Crown Court heard.

He bought one lover an Alfa Romeo car and paid for
another’s pds stlng 2,500 nose job.

He took boyfriends to expensive restaurants and rented
penthouses at top hotels.

His wife and two grown-up children, a son and a
daughter, had no idea of his double life.

The fraud came to light after Beach cracked under the
pressure of the guilt and shame and tried to kill himself at a
Kensington hotel.

He was rushed to hospital and resuscitated, after which
he broke down and confessed his crime and homosexual life.

Beach, of Birkheads Road, Reigate, Surrey, was jailed
for three years after admitting nine charges of obtaining
property by deception and one of conspiracy to obtain
property by deception.

Seventeen similar charges were taken into consideration.

‘Unless there are wholly exceptional circumstances,
where a person embarks on a course of dishonest conduct which
amounts to a breach of trust of the employer then the sentence
must be one of immediate imprisonment,’ said Judge Gerald
Butler, QC.

‘There are no exceptional circumstances in this case.

‘You held a senior and responsible position and the
money was taken to fund your extravagant lifetsyle.

‘No doubt, you did lead what has been called a double
life.

‘No doubt you needed more money than what was being paid
to you, but I do not see that as a mitigating feature.

‘
Beach’s wife and daughter, sitting in the public
gallery, comforted each other while fighting back tears during
the sentence.

Beach, wearing a two-piece blue suit with an open-neck
shirt, sat in the dock with his head bowed.

Looking drawn and thin, he occasionally lifted his head
to look across to his wife and daughter.

As he was led to the cells after sentencing, he turned,
blew a kiss to his wife and daughter and waved goodbye.

Prosecutor Mr Stephen Smyth said it was a simple fraud.

‘The defendant had been for 23 years an employee of
Shell and became a senior employee working in the advertising
and publicity side of the business, becoming head of the
creative department of Shell UK,’ said Mr Smyth.

‘On July 11, 1991, police were called to the Tara Hotel
in Kensington.

The defendant was either making a cry for help or
genuinely trying to kill himself.

‘While waiting for an ambulance to arrive, a police
officer asked why he had tried to kill himself.

The defendant
said he would reveal all.

‘
When interviewed, Beach, who earned pds stlng 37,000 a
year, confessed his secret homosexual life and the fraud to fund
it.

Beach invented a bogus company, Briar Design, and
invoiced Shell for a total of pds stlng 80,000 for art work and
advertising which was never done.

The rest of the money went to Terrence Ashley Evans, a
longterm lover, on the run in Luxemburg, to help Evans’ ailing
businesses.

Evans invoiced Shell on behalf of his own companies,
Terrence Evans Associates, and Gladeside International, for work
that was never done.

Beach approved payment of the invoices from Briar
Design, and Evans’ companies.

‘I have no explanation why in middle life I should
suddenly have the need to express my sexual feelings which I had
never released until about four years ago,’ Beach said in a
letter to the judge.

‘Maybe I will never know the reason for this major
change in my emotional makeup.

‘The end result was intense emotional turmoil which led
to the current charges.

‘
Jane Bickerstaff, defending, said Evans was insidious
and manipulative and blackmailed Beach by threatening to expose
his gay life to his wife and family and his Briar Design fraud
to Shell.

Beach, she said, was trapped by constant fear of
exposure and shame and the guilt of protracting his fraud.

Last July, he thought suicide was the solution and he
tried to kill himself.

After his arrest and confession, ‘there was a great
sense of relief when the whole thing came out into the open.

‘
Ms Bickerstaff said Beach, of previous good
character, had worked for many voluntary organisations for 40
years.

He held the highest office a lay-person can hold in the
Methodist Church.

‘In 1986, he acknowledged for the first time to himself
he in fact had deep seated homosexual tendencies.

That is the
pivotal point of how this course of conduct came about,’ said Ms
Bickerstaff.

Beach secretly contacted other gay men through
homosexual magazines and began sexual and emotional liasons that
liberated his long-supressed desires and needs.

‘After many years of feeling unhappy within himself he
discovered that this was a lifestyle that suited him best,’ she
said.

As Beach entertained lovers with a jetset lifestyle,
‘the pressure of supporting this lifestyle and concealing it
from his family became too great’, said Ms Bickerstaff.

In 1987, he began the Briar Design fraud.

‘It seemed to be a possible and relatively simple
fraud,’ she said.

‘He could not use his family funds to finance this
lifestyle.

‘
Ms Bickerstaff said Beach’s life was practically
destroyed.

Besides, the public shame and humiliation, and the guilt
of letting down his family and his employer, he faces a mountain
of debts and writs when freed from jail.

His wife was standing by him and would continue her
support when he was released from jail.

ENDS