Conman Peter Foster expands pursuit of 60 Minutes, Karl Stefanovic

The 60 Minutes program accused Peter Foster of trying to hire a contract killer to assassinate a private eye who was investigating him.

Career fraudster Peter Foster is crash-tackled and arrested on a remote beach in Queensland. Picture: 60 Minutes/Channel 9

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Serial fraudster Peter Foster is demanding a copy of the full, “unredacted version” of an explosive internal police investigation into his “made for television” arrest in 2020 in front of 60 Minutes’ waiting cameras, as he pursues the media company for “millions” in damages.

The convicted conman successfully sued NSW for false arrest and wrongful imprisonment in February – and received a six-figure payout – over the highly publicised sting, which was captured by reporter Karl Stefanovic and his film crew.

Foster, 62, has now filed a separate lawsuit against the state of NSW in the Supreme Court and is seeking access to the Police Professional Standards Command’s probe into the circumstances leading to his arrest in the hope it will expedite his plans to sue Nine.

The 60 Minutes program accused Foster of trying to hire a contract killer to assassinate a private eye who was investigating him.

Foster has demanded to see “all internal and external correspondence, including emails, file notes, paper writings and electronic communications relating to the creation of and/or the redaction of the (police) report”.

According to his application, filed with the court on May 5, Foster wants access to the documents for “the sole purpose” of considering whether he may be entitled to claim relief against the state of NSW and commence legal proceedings.

“The foreshadowed proceedings would possibly include for damages for personal injury …(and) possible remedies will include claims for general, aggravated and exemplary damages for false imprisonment, deprivation of liberty and wrongful arrest,” the document said.

However, the career con artist told The Australian he hoped the report would also “speed up” his plans to sue the Nine Network, and Stefanovic personally, for allegedly colluding with a rogue NSW police office to have him wrongly arrested.

“It gives us another avenue to demand to see all communications and emails between the police and their media unit, and Nine and their employees, and Stefanovic,” Foster said on Sunday.

“Stefanovic thought he could walk over my body to promote his career, and I’m just not going to cop it … and now I’ve got a multimillion-dollar action against Nine.”

The bombshell legal tussle centres on Foster’s arrest on a Port Douglas beach, about an hour’s drive north of Cairns, in August 2020 in front of Stefanovic and his film crew.

Stefanovic had accused Foster of attempting to hire an assassin to “take out” Foster’s “arch nemesis”, high-profile scam investigator Ken Gamble, during a two-part 60 Minutes report, entitled “King Hit”, in June 2020.

Peter Foster is arrested on a remote beach in Queensland. Picture: 60 Minutes/Channel 9

The story claimed to feature secret audio recordings of Foster allegedly “shopping for a hit man”, and offering to pay more than $100,000 for a contract killer to make Mr Gamble “completely disappear”.

At a Gold Coast cafe, Stefanovic confronted Foster over the covert recordings as part of the 60 Minutes report, only for Foster to deny trying to have Mr Gamble killed and insist the recordings had been fabricated.

Although the tapes were handed over to Gold Coast police, they were considered unreliable as they had been recorded in The Philippines and Foster was never charged.

Stefanovic and his team continued to investigate Foster for a follow-up story, titled “Despicable Him”.

That report focused on Foster’s alleged connection to an international sports scam and subsequent arrest after 60 Minutes and Mr Gamble tracked him down in Port Douglas.

Undercover police in running gear pounced on the then-57-year-old and tackled him to the ground as Stefanovic and his crew recorded the arrest.

Foster was extradited to NSW and charged with allegedly defrauding a Hong Kong national who had engaged Mr Gamble to try to recover his funds.

NSW police dropped the charges six months later after Foster’s lawyers successfully argued there was no proof Foster’s alleged offending took place in the state of NSW.

Foster was later charged with similar offences by Queensland police, and continues to contest those, arguing they should be deferred until his action against the NSW authorities is finalised.

The NSW matter will return to court later this month.