Derren Brown is truly a force to be reckoned with; from his sold-out live shows, to TV specials where he does everything from predicting lottery numbers, to apparent feats of mind control.
One might conclude this is not a man to mess with! Nevertheless, when the illusionist embarked on tour in 2010, his housekeeper Rocio Pavon-Navarrete decided she would have a go.
Brown had left two blank, ‘emergency’ cheques in the care of his Ecuadorian-born cleaner, at his Baker Street home. However, “sucumming to financial pressures”, Pavon-Navarrete betrayed her employer’s trust – stealing the cheques and debiting £33,000 into the account of accomplice Bernard Ayn Banjo.
Last week, Pavon-Navarrete was charged with 16 months in prison… for what Judge David Higgins called a “gross breach of trust”.
Brown is famous for his skills of perception. His ability to second guess others is staggering – and he even appeared to wager his own life on his predictions, with his live Russian Roulette show! Strange then, that he would display such a blind spot when it came to his picking his maid.
This story serves to remind us just how important trust is, when it comes to choosing your home cleaners!
