Pamela Gwinnett is to be extradited from Spain to the UK after fleeing to Tenerife while on bail before her trial. Greater Manchester Police said she has been arrested and will be returned to the UK after the case centred on nearly £300,000 taken from Joan Green.
Green was 89 and from Chorley, Lancashire. Gwinnett was sentenced in her absence to six years in jail in October last year for theft and fraud by abuse of position after plundering Green’s life savings and controlling her finances.
Joan Green’s finances
Gwinnett became Green’s carer and then isolated her from her family, according to the case heard at Preston Crown Court. She also bought a car worth £22,500 and paid for expensive beauty and Botox treatments using Green’s cash.
Judge Michael Maher said: “To you, Joan Green was simply a cash cow to be milked until she was dry.” In the same sentencing remarks, he said: “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.”
Spain and Tenerife
Gwinnett fled to Tenerife in April 2025 hours after a court application to vary her bail conditions was refused. The National Crime Agency and the Spanish authorities assisted in her arrest, and Greater Manchester Police said the return process is now under way.
Gwinnett denied stealing from Green when Sky News confronted her outside her seaside apartment on Tenerife, saying: “I don't need to answer these questions. Did I heck take the money.”
Judge Michael Maher
Maher also said: “There was in my judgment a self-assured shamelessness to your fraudulent activity – to use the colloquialism, you have some brass neck Ms Gwinnett.” He added: “I sincerely hope that Ms Gwinnett is extradited back to the UK to serve this sentence for these egregious offences.”
The return to the UK means the six-year sentence imposed in Gwinnett’s absence can now be enforced in person. 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.”
