Peter Foster’s Victorian housemate ‘thought he was helping conman hide from bad guys’

Peter Foster’s housemate believed he was helping the conman hide from “bad guys” and didn’t know he was wanted by police.

Peter Foster arriving at Brisbane Airport after being extradited to Queensland from Victoria. Picture: Liam Kidston

The man who shared a lifestyle property with Peter Foster in Victoria’s Macedon Ranges ­believed he was helping the conman hide from “bad guys” and didn’t know his housemate was wanted by authorities.

It is understood the man told investigators he came to cohabit with Mr Foster about four months ago after he was introduced by a mutual friend who said he needed somewhere to bunker down.

Mr Foster’s housemate was told the conman was on the run from “bad guys” and looked him up online to find NSW police had dropped 15 charges, which would see Queensland authorities take over the case.

“I thought I was helping him hide from bad guys, not from police,” he is understood to have said.

The man was out when he ­received a call telling him to come back.

He returned home to find the Australian Federal Police’s Fugitive Apprehension Strike Team had arrested Mr Foster, breaking the lock on the front door when busting into the sandstone-and-wood home.

Conman Peter Foster. Picture: Stewart McLean.

“I had no idea … he seemed perfectly normal,” the housemate is understood to have said.

The conman paid rent on the south Gisborne property – advertised for $1250 a week and boasting views of the You Yangs National Park – and the pair lived at opposite ends of the six-bedroom house, although they often had lunch and dinner ­together.

A barefoot and dishevelled Mr Foster is understood to have attempted to evade arrest by hiding under the deck of the house and had to be coaxed out by heavily armed tactical officers.

It is not suggested Mr Foster’s housemate, who was grilled by police for several hours, is suspected of any wrongdoing.

Mr Foster has been missing since he gave NSW police the slip in May, his bail-ordered ankle bracelet found in Sydney’s CBD but not him.

It followed his dramatic arrest in August last year when Queensland police officers crash-tackled Mr Foster on a Port Douglas beach in far north Queensland.

He is facing 16 charges over a bitcoin scheme called Sport Predictions, including five counts of publishing false and misleading material to obtain advantage and 10 counts of dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception.

He was extradited to Queensland from Victoria on Saturday and arrived at Brisbane Airport flanked by officers and appearing to clutch a blanket.

He is due to face Brisbane Magistrates Court on Monday.