Derren Brown’s ex-cleaner jailed for theft

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Derren Brown’s former cleaner has been jailed for 16 months for stealing blank cheques from the TV magician’s home which were cashed in at more than £33,000.

Rocio Pavon-Navarrete, 47, pleaded guilty to theft last month.

Southwark Crown Court heard how she passed cheques worth £21,550 and £11,500 to 48-year-old Bernard Ayanbanjo.

He has also been found guilty of fraud and will be sentenced on 19 October.

The cheques were signed by the gay magican’s manager, James Cooper, but left blank and stored at his home in Baker Street, central London.

Mr Brown – famed for “reading people’s minds” – was away on his 2010 Enigma tour at the time.

According to the Daily Mail, Mr Brown joked after the hearing: “I suppose I should have seen this coming.”

The court heard the cleaner may have done it out of revenge when she was made redundant after working for Mr Brown for seven years.

But James Holland, defending, claimed the separation between the pair had been “amicable” and said her only motive was money.

Judge David Higgins said Pavon-Navarrete had lied all throughout the case and told her at sentencing: “I do not accept your expressions of remorse.”

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