Derren Brown's cleaner jailed for blank cheque thefts

Derren Brown's former cleaner has been jailed for 16 months for stealing blank cheques from the illusionist's home.

Rocio Pavon-Navarrete, 47, previously admitted stealing two signed cheques from Mr Brown's home and cashing them in for more than £33,000.

She pleaded guilty to theft at Southwark Crown Court last month.

The cheques were signed by Brown's manager, James Cooper, but left blank and stored at the TV trickster's home in Baker Street, central London.

The blank cheques were kept to be used by an assistant while the illusionist and his manager were away from the city on business, the court heard.

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 £21,550.35 and £11,500, and paid them into his own bank account between October and December 2010.

He will be sentenced at Southwark Crown Court on 19 October.