Peter Foster: Conman arrested in Port Douglas on alleged fraud charges
Gold Coast-based convicted conman Peter Foster has been arrested on a beach over alleged fraud charges this morning. His movements in the final hours of freedom before police arrived can now be revealed.
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IN the hours before his arrest this morning Peter Foster was joking about a dieting scam he was embroiled in during the 1980s.
The social media post of the conman’s “Last Supper” refers to the Bai Lin Slimming Tea scam, in which he persuaded his then-girlfriend, pin-up model Samantha Fox to spruik the tea.
“For those who don’t believe in miracles, here is the photographic proof,” he wrote.
“Last night I cooked myself dinner. Those who know me well will be picking themselves up off the floor about now and wondering if the world is indeed coming to an end.
“For I am a man who has lived his culinary life with the motto ‘if it’s green it’s trouble, if its fried order double.
“But God, whoever he or she may be, has being (sic) messing with me for a lifetime of selling diet products, an in recent years I have become like one of my before photos that I used in so many mail order advertisements.
“I used to say that I guarantee anyone who bought Bai Lin Slimming Tea would lose five pounds. Well, £4.95 including GST to be precise.
“Pay-back is a bitch”
In the post, which shows a photo of some cooked greens, he goes on to talk about trying to lose weight to find a new love and his quest to see his “naughty bits” again.
“I gave up drinking 4 years ago to lose weight and put on 20 kilos instead. Go figure.
“So I am on a quest to lose those 20 kilose(sic) before Christmas so I may find a new love to kiss under the mistletoe.
“I decided there is much I have missed being so overweight, for one thing I haven’t seen my naughty bits in over 10 years, so this is all about reconnecting with an old friend, and hopefully making new ones.
“Wish me luck.”
Hours later he was arrested on a Port Douglas beach for his alleged involvement in a gambling scam.
EARLIER: Gold Coast-based convicted conman Peter Foster has been arrested on a beach over a multimillion-dollar scam.
The 57-year-old was arrested on the beach in the up-market holiday destination Port Douglas, north of Cairns, just before 8am today.
FOSTER OPENS UP ABOUT LIFE ON THE LAM
It is understood Foster travelled recently from his palatial home on the Gold Coast and had inquired about buying a $1 million yacht moored at Port Douglas.
Three plain-clothed police officers arrested Foster as he was walking his two dogs along Seven Mile Beach this morning.
FOSTER LEAVES COAST IN HANDCUFFS
Sitting on the sand in handcuffs, one officer told a dazed Foster he was the subject of a NSW arrest warrant.
“I’m very worried about my little dogs,” the serial fraudster replied.
It follows a lengthy investigation led by NSW Police into allegations Foster fleeced millions of dollars from investors through an online sports trading operation named Sports Predictions.
He is expected to be charged with more than a dozen offences, including fraud and money laundering, and extradited back to NSW.
It is not the first time Foster, who attracted infamy for his flashy lifestyle choices and celebrity associations, has been in handcuffs.
The career criminal has spent time behind bars in Australia, Vanuatu and Britain for everything from dodgy weight loss products to bogus sports trading.
He used his pin-up girlfriend Samantha Fox and the Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson to spruik his Bai Lin slimming tea in the 1980s.
He controversially helped the wife of then UK Prime Minister Tony Blair buy property at a discount before fleeing the country in the 2000s.
He was banned from being the director of a company and also popped up as a witness in the murder of Novy Chardon on the Gold Coast in 2013.
Foster had claimed he drew a jailhouse confession out of Ms Chardon’s husband, businessman John Chardon, when the pair shared a jail cell in 2015.
Then in 2018, Foster was jailed for 18 months in NSW for using a fake name to dupe investors out of almost $30 million through the Sports Trading Club Scheme.
Since his release from prison he moved back to the Gold Coast, where he claimed in media interviews he had turned over a new leaf.
Originally published as Peter Foster: Conman arrested in Port Douglas on alleged fraud charges