Warrant issued for serial conman Peter Foster

Notorious conman Peter Foster has vanished after Queensland authorities moved to take over the fraud case against him.

Peter Foster leaves the Downing Centre Court in Sydney last month. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Joel Carrett

Notorious conman Peter Foster has vanished after Queensland authorities moved to take over the case against him for an alleged multi-million-dollar fraud, issuing a warrant for his arrest.

Foster attended his lawyer‘s office in Sydney on Thursday morning but when it came time for him to appear in Downing Centre Local Court, he could not be found.

NSW police were alerted to a problem with the ankle bracelet tracking him as part of his bail conditions, The Australian can reveal.

The device was traced to Sydney’s CBD, but NSW police said on Thursday afternoon that Foster’s “current whereabouts are unknown”.

Foster was released on bail in March to live at a luxury Dover Heights home of a female friend, who also provided a $180,000 surety.

The woman said she dropped Foster at court in the morning and was ready to pick him up afterwards but had not heard from him. “I have no idea what happened,” she said. “He’s not going to tell me where he is because he knows I won’t lie.”

Foster was arrested last year on a beach at Port Douglas in far north Queensland and extradited to Sydney after allegedly defrauding a former fighter pilot of almost $2m, collected via Bitcoin through a gambling scheme called Sport Predictions.

The 58-year-old had been facing 16 charges in NSW, including five counts of publishing false and misleading material to obtain advantage and 10 counts of dishonestly obtaining financial advan­tage by deception.

Defence lawyer Justin Lewis told Downing Centre Local Court on Thursday that prosecutors in NSW had agreed to withdraw all charges against Foster to allow Queensland to issue an arrest warrant. When asked by Chief Magistrate Graeme Henson why his client was not in court, Mr Lewis said Foster was “unable to be located”.

“In other words, you can’t find Mr Foster,” Mr Henson replied. He then agreed to formally withdraw and dismiss the charges.

Queensland police said they had issued a warrant for fraud ­offences, and with NSW counterparts were “currently making ­inquiries into his whereabouts”.

IFW Global chairman and private investigator Ken Gamble, hired by the alleged victim to ­investigate the case, said a “comedy of errors” had allowed Foster to disappear.

Foster’s Queensland lawyer, Chris Hannay, said he was a “free man” after NSW prosecutors dropped the charges. He said Foster had decided he “didn’t want to go” to court on Thursday afternoon but would return to Queensland to “face the music”.

“At this stage, he will be making his way up to Queensland to face the warrant and we’ll be making suitable arrangements for him to surrender,” Mr Hannay said. “He will surrender himself in Queensland sensibly and without further fiascos like we saw in north Queensland when he was arrested.”

Police allege Foster adopted the alias “Bill Dawson” to defraud Hong Kong-based pilot Konstantinos “Dino” Stylianopoulosas, receiving funds into a cryptocurrency wallet with a Queensland address while living in Queensland. NSW police pursued the case because the Bitcoin transfers were made through a Sydney cryptocurrency exchange.

A Sydney magistrate last month agreed to adjourn Foster’s case because of concerns over “jurisdictional issues”.

The woman who provided his bail surety said she had legal ­advice she would get her bond back because the NSW charges had been withdrawn.