Costa News Spain Breaking News | English News in Spain.
Former Brookside actor Philip Barry Foster has been jailed for nine years after being extradited from Spain following his arrest in Torrevieja, where Guardia Civil officers detained him in September over a fake modelling scam.
Foster, 51, played villain Christian Wright in the Channel 4 soap during the 1990s. He was sentenced in the UK after a judge described him as a coward for trying to avoid justice while living on the Costa Blanca.
The case centred on a long-running fraud that targeted thousands of would-be models and their families. Prosecutors said Foster helped run sham agencies that promised professional careers before charging victims for poor-quality portfolio photographs and other costs that never led to work.
According to the investigation, the scam operated for more than eight years from Spain, with the network using social media adverts to reach people in cities across the UK. More than 6,000 victims were said to have lost around £13.6 million.
Foster had spent years on the run in Spain, first living openly in Marbella before moving north along the coast to Torrevieja, where he was arrested by the Guardia Civil. He was extradited soon afterwards.
Judges in the UK had already sentenced him in absentia over the fraud. Last week, he was also handed a six-month term for attempting to evade justice, which means he now faces more than nine years in prison in total.
Foster was one of the most wanted British fugitives in Spain before his arrest. His son, Michael, was also sentenced in absentia over the same scheme and is believed to be in Spain.
The case is one of the latest in a long-running collaboration between Spanish police and UK authorities that has led to the arrest of many British fugitives on the Costa Blanca and elsewhere on the mainland.
