A ‘COWARDLY’ former soap star who masterminded an elaborate €16 million fake-modelling scam before fleeing to Spain has been jailed for nine years.
Philip Barry Foster, who played villain Christian Wright in the Channel 4 series Brookside during the 1990s, was arrested by the Guardia Civil while on the run in Torrevieja in September.
Foster, 51, was extradited to the UK soon after and was handed a six-month jail term at a court in Sheffield last week for trying to escape justice.
It means he will now serve more than nine years behind bars after he was sentenced in absentia to eight-and-a-half years in prison in February.
Foster ran a network of sham modelling agencies that lured young hopefuls and their parents with the promise of a professional modelling career – before charging them for poor-quality portfolio photographs that led nowhere.
Operating for more than eight years from his base in Marbella, Foster and eight associates targeted victims through social media adverts in cities including London, Manchester, Leeds, Bristol, Coventry and Nottingham.
The gang offered free test shoots before swindling millions of pounds out of parents by pressing hopefuls into credit deals and payday loans to cover the cost of glossy portfolios that never led to paid work.
Lord Bichard, chairman of National Trading Standards (NTS), said: “Foster’s cruel exploits left thousands of victims in serious debt, causing lasting emotional distress and significant financial pressures.”
More than 6,000 victims were conned by Foster, handing over around £13.6m (€16.2m), a six-year NTS investigation found.
Judge David Dixon told Foster, who appeared via videolink from prison in Yorkshire, that he was a ‘coward’ for trying to flee justice while his co-accused had already come to court.
He said he ‘decided to hide and didn’t come and face the music’ while ‘living a lifestyle based on the income from his illegal scheme’.
Foster was one of Britain’s most wanted fugitives before his arrest.
He spent the early years of his fugitive life living openly in Marbella, before relocating along the coast to expat hotspot Torrevieja.
Foster is one of more than 250 British fugitives arrested by Spanish police since 2019 as part of a long-running collaboration between the Guardia Civil, Policia Nacional and anonymous tip-off service Crimestoppers.
Foster’s son, Michael, was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in absentia for this part in the scheme and is also believed to be hiding out in Spain.
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