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Jail for addict who forced bank manager lover to steal £1m
Paul Cheston, Courts Correspondent5 Mar 2010
A crack cocaine addict who forced his bank manager girlfriend to steal almost £1 million was jailed for three years today.
Keith “Junior” Preddie, 30, banked more than £145,000 of the stolen cash and spent more on motorbikes, BMWs, a failed business and exotic holidays.
Ania Wadsworth, 28, of Archway, said Preddie beat and intimidated her into stealing so he could pay off his drug debts and fund his lifestyle. She repeatedly walked out of a branch of Lloyds TSB with bundles of £25,000 in her handbag and manipulated internal accounts to fool auditors.
Wadsworth admitted stealing the cash but said she was a victim of “battered woman syndrome” and Preddie had threatened to kill her if she did not hand over her wages and steal for him.Wadsworth, a manager for five years, was unanimously cleared of theft after a three week-trial in January.
But Preddie, who bragged he was a record producer, was found guilty of money laundering. He rocked back on his heels and needed support from Old Bailey dock officers as the sentence was announced today. He was led to the cells in tears.
Judge Richard Hone QC said: “There can be no doubt that it was you who put Ania Wadsworth under pressure sufficiently and persistently to steal nearly £1 million from Lloyds bank over a period of approximately five years.”
Christopher Sallon QC, defending Wadsworth, said Preddie used her as a “cash cow” for “smart cars, motorbikes and diamond jewellery”.
Wadsworth, a former pupil at Camden School for Girls and the daughter of two teachers, met Preddie when she was 16, while he was working part time in a gambling shop. She began stealing within weeks of joining the Golders Green branch in 2000, taking £20, £30 or £100 from the tills while working as a cashier. After she was promoted to operations manager in 2002 she had access to internal accounts.
The couple split in 2005 after Preddie had served a prison term for possession of cocaine and obtaining property by deception. Preddie, of Romford, has since became a £70,000-a-year salesman. Before the trial started he was a supervisor for an IT company.
Reader views (7)
How come this woman was able to get away with STEALING for so long , do banks no longer do a daily reconciliation , even the small amounts that were , missing/stolen regulary , should have set off alarm bells , same cashier with shortfalls !!!!!
Before I retired as a retailer if any of my cashiers had regular shortfalls they would have been transfered to other duties , if not dismissed .
Sorry have no sympathy with this woman as the jury clearly did .
- Alan Baker, essex .uk, 08/03/2010 09:55
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I've worked for Lloyds TSB; audit and inspection within the bank has become so slack in recent years I can understand how easy it is for a manager to fiddle the accounts and repeatedly walk out with £25K in her handbag. At least this couple had the good sense not to use the money to buy shares in Lloyds TSB!
- Will, Bristol, England, 08/03/2010 07:48
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Not every bank employee has access to cash so he would not have known unless she told him and if so, why tell him. When working in a bank everything to do with one's job is supposed to be confidential. Even when she was a cashier I would have expected that the bank would need a reconciiation at the end of every day. The whole thing is really strange.
- Patricia, LONDON, 05/03/2010 16:47
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How anyone can employ these people surprises me. He can get a £70,000 a year job after a term in prison.
- Jim, London, 05/03/2010 16:06
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Yet again a banker gets away with it!
She is as much a thief as him - and where is all the money now?
Parasites.
- Scotty, London, 05/03/2010 15:50
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What a crock! SHE was the one manipulating accounts and walking out with the sacks of cash; and she does not get a day in jail and he gets three years? This case screams of reverse sexism. I am sure if the roles were reversed there would be a different outcome.
- Dirk Diggler, Soho, London, 05/03/2010 14:37
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Admittedly, a crack cocaine addict with a 70k sales job must be a very persuasive man.
Nearly 800k is still unaccounted for....
- Dave Le Rave, London, 05/03/2010 12:24
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