Fraudster receives extra two-month term after Tenerife run

A woman who defrauded a vulnerable 89-year-old pensioner of nearly £300,000 and then fled to Tenerife for 16 months has been sentenced to additional prison time after being extradited back to the UK. Pamela Gwinnett, 63, was handed a further two-month sentence at Preston Crown Court on August 3, 2026, for breaching her bail conditions, adding to a six-year term imposed in her absence last year.

Gwinnett had posed as a carer for retired accountant Joan Green between December 2019 and November 2022, systematically isolating the widow from her family in Chorley, Lancashire. She changed the locks on Mrs. Green’s bungalow, switched her landline number, and made false allegations to social services against concerned relatives. Under the guise of providing care, Gwinnett instead drained Mrs. Green’s life savings, spending the money on a luxury car, Botox treatments, expensive meals, and designer clothes. Mrs. Green died in November 2022.

After being charged with fraud by abuse of position and theft, Gwinnett was released on bail. In April 2025, she applied to the court for permission to travel to Tenerife to scatter her brother’s ashes, a request that was refused. Hours after the...