Former actor arrested in Spain over £13.6m con of would-be models

A former TV soap actor has been arrested in Spain after he jumped bail before going on trial for a £13.6m fraud that conned would-be models.

Former Brookside actor Philip Foster, 51, is wanted to serve an eight-and-a-half-year jail sentence after being convicted in absentia of fraud and money laundering last year.

He ran an operation involving an extensive network of sham modelling agencies that exploited the hopes of aspiring young models and their parents for more than eight years.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) said that after jumping bail, Foster was convicted and sentenced in his absence at Sheffield Crown Court in February 2025.

He was detained by officers from the Guardia Civil on Thursday in Alicante, Spain.

Extradition proceedings to return him to the UK are now under way, the NCA said.

He is the fourth man featured on the NCA's recent most wanted campaign to be arrested.

Would-be models scammed

A six-year 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 and used his share of the proceeds to buy high-end watches and cars.

He used a network of associates in England to operate the sham agencies and photography studios in cities including London, Manchester, Leeds, Bristol, Coventry and Nottingham.

The victims were tricked 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, according to NTS.

The would-be models were told they had passed their studio test, but they would need to buy their portfolio photographs from the studio to join an agency and become a model.

Glossy brochures were used to help convince them that the scam was legitimate.

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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 modelling work.

Many victims told NTS investigators they had been left financially and emotionally devastated, and felt humiliated and betrayed.

(c) Sky News 2026: Former actor arrested in Spain over £13.6m con of would-be models