A FORMER British TV soap actor named on a recent ‘UK Most Wanted’ list of fugitives in Spain has recently been living on Costa Blanca but fled in May after his wife died.

51-year-old Philip Foster who played Christian Wright on the Channel 4 show, was sentenced by a Sheffield court in February 2025 to eight-and-a-half years behind bars for conspiracy to fraud.

Foster, along with eight associates, were involved in an extensive £13.6 million con that ran for over eight years.

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National Trading Standards uncovered an extensive network of sham modelling agencies that cruelly exploited the dreams of aspiring young models and their parents.

Foster was the ringleader of the operation, orchestrating the fraud from Marbella by using a network of associates based in England who operated a string of sham modelling agencies and photography studios in cities across the country, including London, Manchester, Leeds, Bristol, Coventry, and Nottingham.

More than 6,000 victims were deceived by the group – mainly young people and mothers – who ended up parting with substantial amounts of money under the false promise of securing paid modelling work.

Philip Foster was sentenced in his absence by the judge, with a Marbella address declared in court records.

His name was listed in the latest Operation Captura list published in May by the UK’s National Crime Agency featuring 12 British fugitives believed to be in expat areas of Spain.

Now an investigation conducted by the Liverpool Echo has discovered that Foster had been living in the coastal Punta Prima area of Torrevieja until May.

His whereabouts are unknown.

The Echo revealed that Foster and his wife Nicola moved north from Marbella at an undisclosed time in an attempt to give authorities the slip.

The newspaper’s probe discovered that they lived in an upmarket apartment block in Punta Prima until his wife died after suffering an illness in May.

A Guardia Civil spokesperson told the Liverpool Echo that she died of natural causes on May 16 – just two days after the new Operation Captura list was launched at an event in Alicante.

Foster’s 30-year-old son, Michael, was sentenced in his absence at the Sheffield court to three-and-a-half years in prison for his part in the modelling agency scam.

He – like his father – is also believed to be somewhere in Spain, according to the Echo.

An estimated £1.9 million made by the fraud was transferred to accounts in Philip Foster’s name, with cash brought into Spain on his behalf by his son.

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