Woman who stole £300k from pensioner before Sky News tracked her down in Tenerife is jailed

A fugitive fraudster who Sky News confronted in Tenerife has been jailed.

Pamela Gwinnett raided £300,000 from the life savings of vulnerable pensioner Joan Green while pretending to be her friend and carer during the COVID-19 pandemic.

She spent 89-year-old Joan's money on luxuries including expensive meals and beauty treatments like Botox.

Gwinnett was originally handed a six-year prison sentence for fraud by abuse of position and theft - but she had already fled to Tenerife. She ended up being on the run for more than a year.

After Sky News tracked her down, Gwinnett was arrested in Tenerife last month and sentenced at Preston Crown Court on Monday to six years and two months in prison.

Judge Michael Maher told Gwinnett: "You have treated this process as you did Joan Green - with utter contempt".

The judge said she "continued to besmirch Joan's family" from abroad.

"I regard that as cowardly," he added, before thanking journalists for keeping the case in the public eye.

Sky News confronted Gwinnett at a picturesque apartment block on the island where she'd been living. Neighbours there saw her swimming in the communal pool and enjoying the sun when she should have been in prison.

We asked her why she had defrauded Joan. She said she'd done nothing wrong. "Did I heck take the money!" she said.

The judge who previously sentenced Gwinnett said she had treated Joan as "a cash cow to be milked until she was dry".

Speaking after Monday's sentencing hearing, Joan's step-grandson David Bolton said Gwinnett had caused "an immense deal of stress, upset, and heartache". His wife Rebecca added that "it was great to finally see justice served".

Gwinnett was finally extradited from Tenerife last week. Sky News joined Greater Manchester Police as they swooped in to arrest her as she got off a plane with National Crime Agency officers at Manchester Airport.

We asked her if she regretted taking the money and if she wanted to apologise to Joan's family, but she remained silent - only nodding when asked if she was still intending to appeal her conviction and sentence.

Joan, from Chorley, Lancashire, died in 2022.

Gwinnett had convinced her to transfer her lasting power of attorney, giving her significant control over her finances.

During Gwinnett's trial in her absence, jurors were shown a video secretly filmed by Joan's stepgrandson David Bolton of a row he had with Gwinnett at Joan's home.

In the footage, Gwinnett shouts: "This is nothing to do with you - I'm power of attorney."

When the family say she doesn't speak for Joan, she yells: "Yes I do!"

When Gwinnett was finally arrested in Tenerife, Mr Bolton told Sky News: "We are pleased that Pamela Gwinnett has finally been arrested and will now be held accountable for what she did to my nan.

"However, it has taken far too long to reach this point."

(c) Sky News 2026: Woman who stole £300k from pensioner before Sky News tracked her down in Tenerife is jailed