The 63-year-old, jailed in her absence for six years after plundering the life savings of 89-year-old Joan Green, was detained in Los Cristianos following a joint operation by Greater Manchester Police, the National Crime Agency and Spanish authorities
A fraudster who stole £300,000 from a vulnerable pensioner before fleeing to Tenerife while on bail has been arrested and is set to be extradited back to Britain. Pamela Gwinnett, 63, was detained in Los Cristianos after a year-long international search involving Greater Manchester Police, the National Crime Agency and the Spanish authorities. She was convicted in her absence last October and sentenced to six years in prison for theft and fraud by abuse of position against 89-year-old Joan Green, of Chorley, Lancashire — a sentence she has so far avoided serving. The formal extradition process to return her to the UK has now begun.
Gwinnett absconded to the Spanish island in April 2025 while awaiting trial, boarding a flight just hours after a court refused her application to vary her bail conditions so that she could purportedly scatter her brother’s ashes there.
Announcing the arrest, Greater Manchester Police said Mrs Green’s family had been formally informed. Lead investigator PC Georgia Loughton said: “Pamela knowingly defrauded a vulnerable woman out of almost £300,000, cutting off all contact with her family and controlling every aspect of her life… Joan was isolated from her family and denied from seeing her grandchildren and their children.”
She added: “We hope that the return of Pamela to the UK to serve her sentence gives Joan’s family a sense of justice as they look to move on with their lives.”
‘A cash cow to be milked until she was dry’
Preston Crown Court heard that Gwinnett drained Mrs Green’s life savings after becoming her carer, taking control of her finances and cutting her off from her relatives. As part of the scam, she made a series of false claims of theft and neglect against Mrs Green’s stepdaughter and stepgrandchild before securing power of attorney. Mrs Green died in November 2022.
The money funded an extravagant lifestyle, the court was told, including a £22,500 car and expensive beauty and Botox treatments.
Sentencing her last year as if she were present in the courtroom, Judge Michael Maher said: “To you, Joan Green was simply a cash cow to be milked until she was dry.
“And so having inveigled your way into their lives behind the charade that you were a benevolent friend to Joan, you set about playing the long game to isolate and control a vulnerable woman and thereby enrich yourself.
“There was in my judgment a self-assured shamelessness to your fraudulent activity – to use the colloquialism, you have some brass neck Ms Gwinnett.”
Judge demanded her return to Britain
Judge Maher made clear at sentencing that he expected Gwinnett to be brought back. “I sincerely hope that Ms Gwinnett is extradited back to the UK to serve this sentence for these egregious offences,” he said. “It is an affront to justice and the rule of law for this defendant to be allowed to remain in Tenerife.”
Court records show that in his written sentencing remarks, the judge directed the Crown Prosecution Service to report on what steps had been taken with the Spanish authorities to secure her return. He also ordered that a copy of his remarks be provided to Mrs Green’s stepdaughter, Katherine Farrimond, in recognition of the impact on the victim’s family.
Investigators have revealed that a £300,000 confiscation order under the Proceeds of Crime Act was obtained after Gwinnett’s conviction, intended to recover money linked to the fraud.
‘Did I heck take the money’
Earlier this year, a Sky News crew confronted Gwinnett outside her picturesque seaside apartment on the Canary Island. She denied stealing from the pensioner, telling the channel: “I don’t need to answer these questions. Did I heck take the money.”
No date has yet been announced for her extradition, and authorities have not said exactly when Gwinnett will be returned to the UK to begin serving her six-year sentence.
