“To you, Joan Green was nothing more than a cash cow to be milked until she was dry.” Judge Michael Maher said that to Pamela Gwinnett at Preston Crown Court, and the figure behind it was £296,173.68.
Joan Green was a retired accountant from Chorley, Lancashire. Her late husband Stanley had risen to a senior post at British Aerospace. They had built up savings carefully, and after Stanley died Joan developed dementia. Gwinnett was not a professional carer. As the judge put it, she occasionally did shopping or light cleaning for the couple, and then realised how wealthy Joan was.
Locks, a landline and a power of attorney
The court heard that in 2019 Gwinnett persuaded Mrs Green to give her Lasting Power of Attorney, which handed her unrestricted access to the money. The Daily Star reported that she used it to pay for Botox and beauty treatments and to keep up an expensive lifestyle. She also bought a car, which she claimed was mainly for carers to ferry Joan about.
Then came the pandemic. The Manchester Evening News reported that when lockdown began in 2020 Gwinnett moved Joan into a nursing home near her own house in Adlington, and applied for planning permission for major renovations to that home. When restrictions eased she brought Joan back to the Chorley bungalow without telling the family. She changed the locks on the gates, swapped the landline number and sacked the family’s long-standing gardener.
She told carers to turn relatives away. She told Mrs Green the family were “not good enough”. She also lodged false reports with social services, claiming relatives were robbing the old woman, and said her accusations had the backing of the local MP, Sir Lindsay Hoyle. None of it was true.
Carers who visited saw Gwinnett “barking” at Mrs Green and neglecting her basic needs. One physiotherapist compared the house to a cage. In June 2021 a carer who was leaving the job called the family in, and Joan’s grandson David Bolton filmed the 25-minute encounter on his phone. The footage later helped bring Gwinnett to justice.
The money
In 2022 the Court of Protection found that Mrs Green no longer had capacity because of her dementia, and Gwinnett’s power of attorney was suspended. By then she had taken £166,000. A few months later she opened a joint bank account with Joan and drew a further £119,000 out of it. Joan died in November 2022, 11 days short of her 90th birthday.
Gwinnett, of Greenfield Road, Adlington, was arrested on suspicion of fraud by abuse of position and theft, and bailed. In April 2025 she asked the court to loosen her bail conditions so she could scatter her brother’s ashes in Tenerife. Judge Maher refused and ordered her to hand over her passport. Five hours later she was on a flight to the Canaries.
She missed her trial. The jury found her guilty in her absence, and in October 2025 she was sentenced to six years, again with an empty dock. In March 2026 Sky News tracked her down in Tenerife. She told the broadcaster: “Her family took it.” Last week, the Manchester Evening News reported, she was arrested, extradited and photographed in custody at Manchester Airport. She was taken to HMP Styal.
Joan’s stepdaughter Katherine Farrimond said the fraud left Joan and her father in unmarked graves, because Gwinnett obstructed probate. David Bolton said Gwinnett had never apologised.
Sources
- Catching the 'Black Widow': How the web finally closed in on the fugitive fraudster – Manchester Evening News
- Carer flees to Tenerife after keeping frail pensioner as 'caged animal' to steal £300k – Daily Star
