Jail for addict who forced bank manager lover to steal £1m

"Cash cow": Ania Wadsworth claimed she was threatened by Keith "Junior" Preddie
12 April 2012

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.

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