Brookside actor who went on run jailed for £13m modelling fraud

A former TV soap actor who went on the run before his trial for a £13.6m modelling fraud has been jailed for nine years.

Philip Foster, 51, who played Christian Wright in the Liverpool soap Brookside, was jailed in his absence for eight and a half years in February 2025 for fraud and money laundering, after conning thousands of would-be models.

He hid in Spain but was arrested in Alicante in September and subsequently extradited to the UK. He was given an extra six-month sentence for absconding.

At Sheffield Crown Court, Judge David Dixon told him: “You were a coward, you decided to hide and didn’t come and face the music.”

Foster ran a network of fake modelling agencies and photographic studios for more than eight years, targeting aspiring models and their parents.

The judge said his co-defendants had come to court to be sentenced.

He referred to Foster buying designer watches and a Porsche for his daughter, as well as being photographed on yachts.

This showed Foster was “living a lifestyle based on the income from this illegal scheme”, he said.

The court heard about the deaths of Foster’s wife and son.

His barrister, Anthony Barraclough, said Foster’s wife had died from cancer and his son Michael had been murdered around Christmas 2025.

Barraclough told the court: “He has had a great deal going on, of a terrible nature, but he is nevertheless an absconder.”