Heartless carer who fled to Tenerife after stealing £300,000 told to sell house | UK News

A cruel and manipulative con artist nicknamed the ‘black widow’ after defrauding an elderly woman of almost £300,000 has been ordered to sell her home to pay back the stolen money.

Pamela Gwinnett, 62, treated weak and vulnerable Joan Green as a ‘cash cow to be conned’ – even stealing her money after she died in November 2022.

Gwinnett, who claimed to be the 89-year-old widower’s friend and caregiver, isolated him from his family and callously accused them of abusing him.

She used the stolen cash to reduce a large amount on her mortgage and buy an Audi Q2, expensive food, beauty treatments and Botox.

Gwinnett left England for Tenerife after being accused of fraud and theft. He was found guilty and jailed for six years in his absence last October.

The con artist remained on the Spanish Island, where she was nicknamed the ‘Black Widow’ due to her reputed attraction to wealthy pensioners.

At a Proceeds of Crime Hearing, which she also did not attend, her attorney Abigail Holmes said Gwinnett intended to appeal her conviction for fraud and theft.

Judge Michael Maher issued a confiscation order for £350,180.79, which Gwinnett must pay within three months.

He said the Gwinnett home in Adlington must be sold and the deadline could be extended to allow for the sale to be completed, if necessary.

If Gwinnett fails to pay the money he owes, he will face up to 42 months in prison for failure to pay.

Judge Maher said: ‘This is a rare case where I can issue a full confiscation order for the stolen funds.

‘It is unusual for the amount available to exceed the proposed confiscation figure. Against this background, I have made a compensation order against Joan Green’s estate.’

The Gwinnett trial revealed that he knew that Joan was rich from working as an accountant, while her husband had been a senior manager at British Aerospace.

‘Both have worked hard during their working lives, and they have invested carefully and astutely for their old age,’ Judge Maher said in his sentencing speech last year.

‘But to you, Joan Green is just a milk cow who was milked until she was dry.

‘And once you delve into their lives behind the charade that you are Joan’s best friend, you begin to play the long game of isolating and controlling vulnerable women and thereby enriching yourself.

‘His cover-up was so successful that he granted you a lasting power of attorney within a relatively short time of getting to know you.’

While admitting to caring for the pensioner, he also isolated Joan from her friends and family by lying that her closest relative was stealing from her. pension Money.

He even moved Joan to a nursing home near where he lived in Adlington to stay close to her Covid hit in March 2020.

When the country emerged from lockdown a year later, Gwinett took Joan back to her home in Chorley – but padlocked the gate and changed the landline number to protect her ‘golden goose’.

During the final months of his life – which the court heard had been ‘spots characterized by increasing periods of confusion and bewilderment’.

In March of the following year, Joan was deemed to lack capacity and Gwinett’s power of attorney was suspended.

But he had already looted £161,000 by that time and was able to steal a further £119,000 by opening a joint account and transferring large sums of Joan’s money into it.

In a victim personal statement, stepdaughter Katherine Farrimond, 65, said Joan believed in her final years that her family ‘hated her’ and ‘didn’t want to see her’ because of Gwinnett’s ‘lies’.

In April, Gwinnett applied for a change to his bail conditions so he could fly to Tenerife, saying he wanted to scatter his late brother’s ashes.

His request was denied but he still boarded the plane hours later and has remained there ever since.

Contact our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

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