A British businessman in Tokyo, whose disappearance provoked lurid rumours about his assassination by Japanese gangsters, slipped out of the country after withdrawing £40,000 of his company’s money.

Police have stopped searching for 41-year old Garin Dart, a Tokyo resident who organised parties for expatriates, because they believe that he has run away. The news will lead to conjecture about what drove a father to abandon his pregnant wife, child, friends and colleagues, and vanish.

“We are not actively moving [on this],” said Superintendent Hiroshi Kozono of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police, who confirmed from immigration that Mr Dart left Japan after his disappearance for an unknown destination. “There is a possibility of embezzlement.”

Mr Dart was well-known among Tokyo expatriates. His company, Bluesilver, organised parties