A manipulative fraudster who conned an elderly woman of almost £300,000 before fleeing to Tenerife is facing up to six years in jail.
Pamela Gwinnett, 62, continued to steal money of Joan Greene, 89, after the pensioner died, treating her like a ‘cash cow needing to be milked’.
Gwinnet claimed to be the grandmother’s caregiver, but isolated the frail, vulnerable Joan from her family.
She accused relatives of mistreating the widow and did everything she could to keep them away while she pulled out her ‘golden goose’.
She allegedly stole hundreds of thousands of pounds from the elderly woman and used the money to pay for Botox and expensive meals before fleeing to Tenerife after being caught.
Gwinett denied charges of fraud and theft but was found guilty by a jury at Preston Crown Court.
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After discovering that ex-accountant Joan was rich, Gwinett made up a lie and convinced Joan that her family was stealing from her pension.
Gwinett even moved Joan into a care home to keep the retiree close when Covid struck in March 2020.
After the pandemic ended, she took Joan home but padlocked the gate of her bungalow and changed the landline number in an attempt to prevent Joan’s family from contacting her.
A court ruled that the last months of Joan’s life had become ‘pockmarked periods of bewilderment and confusion.”
Joan also became doubly incontinent, but instead of caring for the older woman, Gwinett “bullied” her.
Gwinett would hire Joan’s professional live-in caregivers for two hours a day, charging the retiree for that time.
Judge Michael Maher said: “On one occasion [one of the carers] found with her horror that you left Joan in bed covered in her own feces at the end of your two-hour shift.
‘On another occasion you barked at her to relieve herself in her incontinence pad.’
Eventually, one of Joan’s caregivers became so concerned that she arranged for Joan’s family to visit.
The meeting led to a huge argument with a video of the incident showing Joan complaining that she doesn’t know what’s going on.
Images also show that Joan had money problems, despite being a wealthy woman.
By the time Gwinett’s current By the time Joan’s lawyer was disbarred, she had already robbed the pensioner of £161,000.
She even managed to steal a further £119,000 by opening a joint account and transferring Joan’s money into it.
Judge Maher said Joan’s family is “devastated by the fact that Joan is in the mist of her deteriorating situation mental health You may very well have believed the lies you were kicking, making her isolation all the lonelier and lonelier.”
Joan’s stepdaughter Katherine Farrimond, 65, said that in her final years, Joan believed her family “hated her” and “didn’t want to see her” because of Gwinett’s “lies.”
In April, Gwinett applied to vary her bail conditions so she could fly to Tenerife. She said she hoped to scatter her late brother’s ashes there.
Her request was denied, but she still shamelessly boarded the plane a few hours later and has remained there ever since.
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The judge added: “I sincerely hope that Ms Gwinett is extradited to Britain to serve this sentence for these egregious crimes.
“It is an insult to justice and the rule of law that this defendant is allowed to remain in Tenerife.”
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