A former Brookside star who went on the run has been jailed for nine years.
Philip Foster absconded to Spain shortly before he was set to face justice for a £13.6 million modelling fraud scheme that affected more than 6,000 people.
He was one of nine people sentenced from a group which operated a string of UK sham modelling agencies uncovered by National Trading Standards.
Victims were sent emails after responding to social media advertising campaigns before being invited to a ‘free’ test shoot at photography studios.
Some of those duped by Foster used unregulated credit deals and payday loans to pay for a portfolio of poor-quality images they were pressured into buying.
The ex-actor, who played Christian Wright on the Liverpool soap, was sentenced in his absence at Sheffield Crown Court in February 2025.
Foster was named on the UK’s most wanted list in May this year and finally arrested in Torrevieja last month and successfully extradited back to the UK.
Appearing at Sheffield Crown Court via videolink from prison on Friday (October 16), the 51-year-old was finally forced to face up to his criminal past.
Lawyers acting for Foster claimed he stayed on the run due to grief after his son’s allegedly murder last Christmas and his wife’s death from illness in May.
But Judge David Dixon imposed his original eight-and-a-half years behind bars in addition to a further six months for the time spent evading authorities.
He said: “You’re a coward who decided to hide and not come to face the music.”