Brookside actor Philip Foster is jailed for nine years after fleeing to Spain to dodge his £13m model agency fraud trial

Philip Foster, 51, the Brookside actor who portrayed villain Christian Wright, spent years operating a web of fraudulent modelling agencies that cheated more than 6,000 aspiring models and their parents out of £13.6m. A six-year National Trading Standards investigation established that victims were drawn in through social media advertisements, offered free photoshoots, then put under pressure to purchase costly portfolios. Sheffield Crown Court judge David Dixon called Foster a coward and handed him a total sentence of nine years, with an additional six months for absconding.

Foster squandered the proceeds of his fraud on designer watches and a Porsche for his daughter, and was pictured enjoying himself on yachts in Spain.

His barrister informed the court that Foster's son Michael — who had helped smuggle cash out to his father — was murdered in Spain around Christmas 2025, and that his wife had died of cancer.

'You were a coward, you decided to hide and didn't come and face the music,' Judge Dixon told Foster, who appeared from HMP Doncaster via videolink.