A FORMER Brookside actor who conned 6,000 aspiring models out of £14million with a fake agency has been jailed after going on the run.
became one of the UK’s most wanted after he fled Britain and hid in Spain for a year.
The 51-year-old was convicted in his absence of swindling more than 6,000 victims out of millions of pounds and jailed for eight-and-a-half years.
Foster, who played Christian Wright in the long-running series , was finally caught in the town of Torrevieja following a huge manhunt.
He was today jailed for a further six months after being extradited back to the UK.
Judge David Dixon told Foster told him: “You were a coward, you decided to hide and didn’t come and face the music.”
He also said Foster purchased designer watches, was photographed on yachts and bought his daughter a Porsche, demonstrating “you were living a lifestyle based on the income from this illegal scheme”.
Sheffield Crown Court heard the conman ran a network of fake modelling agencies that preyed on desperate models seeking work for more than eight years.
His victims were duped by glitzy social media ads and false promises but ended up plunging themselves and their families into debt.
The models were told they had to buy their portfolio photographs from the studio in order to join an agency and become an agency model.
But in return they were given poor quality digital photographs that stood no real chance of landing them professional work.
Those who did land jobs were not paid for their modelling and had to resort to payday loans or dodgy credit deals arranged by Foster.
Meanwhile, the former actor splurged his ill-gotten gains on designer watches and cars.
He used a network of associates in England to operate the sham agencies and photography studios in cities including London, Manchester, Leeds, Bristol, Coventry and Nottingham.
Foster lived the high life in the Spanish sunshine as his victims were left financially and emotionally crippled.
The soap star’s “cruel” scam was uncovered in a six-year investigation by National Trading Standards (NTS).
In May, last year the National Agency appealed to the public for help to track down Foster to serve out his jail term.
Dramatic footage showed the moment armed police swooped on the fugitive at his base in Alicante.
He was one of more than 250 British fugitives Spanish police have arrested since 2019.
Eight others were sentenced in relation to the fraud – including the scammer’s son Michael, was also believed to be hiding out in Spain.
During the hearing it emerged that Foster’s wife has died from cancer and son Michael was murdered around Christmas last year.
Anthony Barraclough, defending, said: “The Spanish have imposed a blanket of secrecy in relation to that.
“He has had a great deal going on, of a terrible nature, but he is nevertheless an absconder.”
