Former Brookside star Philip Foster has been arrested in Spain and will be extradited to the UK over a £13.6 million fraud. The 51-year-old, who played Christian Wright in the Liverpool soap that ran from 1982 to 2003, fled the country after being convicted of fraud and money laundering last year. He was wanted to serve an eight-and-a-half-year jail sentence.
Foster's elaborate modelling scam
Foster ran an operation involving an extensive network of sham modelling agencies that exploited the dreams of aspiring young models and their parents for more than eight years. He was convicted and sentenced in his absence at Sheffield Crown Court in February 2025, having jumped bail, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.
Yesterday, officers from the Guardia Civil in Alicante detained him, and extradition proceedings to return him to the UK are now in progress. Foster is the fourth man featured on the NCA's recent most wanted campaign to be arrested.
Victims duped with false promises
A National Trading Standards (NTS) investigation found that more than 6,000 victims parted with large sums of money on the false promise of securing paid modelling work. Foster ran the fraud from his base in Spain, where he lived a luxurious lifestyle.
He used a network of associates in England to operate a string of sham modelling agencies and photography studios in cities including London, Manchester, Leeds, Bristol, Coventry, and Nottingham. The operation was uncovered after a six-year NTS investigation.
How the scam worked
The victims were duped into thinking that a model agency was interested in them, with emails telling them they had potential after they responded to a local photographic studio and social media advertising campaign. An invitation to get a 'free' test shoot at the photographic studio was used to try to extort money.
They were handed glossy brochures and told that other people like them had been successful and they had passed their studio test, but they would need to buy a photographic portfolio for the modelling agencies who were interested in them. They were told they had to buy their portfolio photographs from the studio to join an agency and become an agency model. Some of them used credit deals arranged by the fraudsters or expensive payday loans to make the upfront payment.
In return, the victims got poor quality digital photographs that stood no real chance of landing them professional jobs, and most did not get paid for modelling work.
Impact and next steps
Foster bought high-end watches and cars with his share of the proceeds, while many victims told NTS investigators they had been left financially and emotionally devastated, and felt humiliated and betrayed. Extradition proceedings are now in progress to return Foster to the UK to serve his sentence.
