Pamela Gwinnett came home on Thursday in handcuffs. Officers met her at Manchester Airport after she was extradited from Tenerife and put her in a police van.
Gwinnett was a carer who took almost £300,000 from 89-year-old Joan Green of Chorley, Lancashire, the pensioner’s life savings. She was convicted of theft and fraud by abuse of position. The judge said she treated Green as a “cash cow to be milked until she was dry”.
She had not been there to hear it. Gwinnett flew to Tenerife in April 2025 while on bail, and she was sentenced in her absence to six years in prison. The flight came just hours after a court refused her application to vary her bail conditions so she could, as she put it, scatter her brother’s ashes on the island.
Botox and a new car
The court heard where the money went. Gwinnett bought a car worth £22,500 and paid for expensive beauty and Botox treatments.
A Sky News crew later found her outside her seaside apartment on the island. She waved off the questions. “I don’t need to answer these questions,” she said. “Did I heck take the money.”
The hunt
UK and Spanish authorities worked together to bring her back. Clare Meehan of the National Crime Agency said the NCA had worked closely with Greater Manchester Police and law enforcement partners in Spain “to secure her return to face justice.”
Green did not live to see it. She died in 2022. PC Georgia Loughton of Greater Manchester Police said: “Gwinnett’s actions have denied the victim’s family closure – we hope some form of closure comes from this result.”
Gwinnett must now serve the six-year sentence. She is also due at Manchester Magistrates Court over her earlier failure to appear.
