Hours after a judge refused to relax her bail conditions, Pamela Gwinnett boarded a flight to Tenerife. It was April 2025. Her stated reason was to scatter her brother’s ashes on the island. She was due to stand trial in Britain, and she never came back.
In July 2026 the 63-year-old was arrested in Los Cristianos, in the south of Tenerife. Greater Manchester Police confirmed the arrest on 15 July, and the BBC reported on 16 July that she is to be returned to the UK with help from the National Crime Agency and the Spanish authorities.
The pensioner she took from
The victim was Joan Green, an 89-year-old retired accountant from Chorley, Lancashire. Gwinnett became her carer, and Preston Crown Court heard what followed: she controlled Green’s finances, cut her off from her family and drained her life savings. Nearly £300,000 went. Before she obtained power of attorney, she had also made false claims of theft and neglect against Green’s stepdaughter and stepgrandchild.
The money paid for a car worth £22,500, along with beauty treatments and Botox, according to the BBC. Canarian Weekly added property mortgage payments, expensive meals and cosmetic procedures to the list. Green died in November 2022.
Gwinnett was tried and convicted in her absence. In October last year she was sentenced to six years in jail for theft and fraud by abuse of position. Judge Michael Maher passed sentence as if she were standing in the dock. “To you, Joan Green was simply a cash cow to be milked until she was dry,” he said. He also remarked on her “self-assured shamelessness” and said she had “some brass neck”.
He went further, saying it was “an affront to justice and the rule of law” for her to remain in Tenerife.
Confronted on the island
Earlier in 2026 Sky News tracked Gwinnett down outside her seaside apartment. She denied taking anything. “I don’t need to answer these questions,” she said. “Did I heck take the money.”
Green’s family spent close to a year campaigning for her return. They had said repeatedly that she was living openly in southern Tenerife while avoiding punishment, Canarian Weekly reported. They have now been told of the arrest.
PC Georgia Loughton, the lead investigator, said: “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.”
What happens next
She will not be put on a plane straight away. Because a Crown Court has already convicted and sentenced her, Britain is asking Spain to surrender her to serve that sentence, rather than seeking extradition for trial. Canarian Weekly said she is expected to appear before Spanish judicial authorities, with the case then handled by the Audiencia Nacional, which deals with international surrender requests.
The court will check the UK warrant and decide whether the legal requirements are met. The proceedings are expected to focus on whether the request is lawful, not on the evidence in the fraud case. If Gwinnett agrees to go, she could be back in the UK within days. If she fights the request, legal challenges could stretch the process to several weeks or months.
Sources
- Chorley fraudster who fled UK for Spain to be extradited
- Canarian Weekly – Police confirm that fugitive fraudster Pamela Gwinnett has been arrested in Tenerife
