Derren Brown's cleaner jailed for stealing cheques

Derren Brown's cleaner jailed for stealing cheques (Image credit: PA)

Derren Brown's former cleaner has been jailed for 16 months for stealing blank cheques from the illusionist's home which were cashed in for more than 33,000 pounds. Rocio Pavon-Navarrete, 47, previously admitted stealing two signed cheques from the entertainer's home while he was away. She pleaded guilty at Southwark Crown Court last month to one charge of theft. The cheques were signed by Brown's manager, James Cooper, but were left blank and stored at his home in Baker Street, central London, for use by his assistant while the TV star and Mr Cooper were away on business. Pavon-Navarrete, of Bardsley Lane, Greenwich, south east London, was jailed for 16 months at Southwark Crown Court today, the official said. Pavon-Navarrete's co-defendant, Bernard Ayanbanjo, 48, was found guilty of fraud last month after a trial. Ayanbanjo, of Waverley Road, Woolwich, south east London, took the cheques, worth 21,550 pounds and 11,500 pounds, and paid them into his own bank account between October and December 2010. He will be sentenced at Southwark Crown Court on October 19.

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.