Foster awaits flight
SERIAL fraudster Peter Foster will spend the weekend in the Cairns watch-house before being flown in police custody to Sydney, where he is expected to face more than a dozen charges linked to an alleged sports betting scam.
The 57-year-old, who lives in a luxury home on the Gold Coast, had spent the past few weeks at Port Douglas and was dramatically arrested on Four Mile Beach by undercover members of the Major and Organised Crime Squad.
He appeared in the Cairns
Magistrates Court via video link from the Cairns watchhouse on Friday morning, still wearing the Hawaiian shirt he was arrested in.
Magistrate Joe Pinder granting his extradition to NSW.
His solicitor Justin Lewis said his client did not oppose the extradition and did not make an application for bail.
Foster, who had been living under the alias “Bill Duffy” while in the Far North, is accused of running a multi-million-dollar sports betting racket.
He moved into an Andrews Close house in July with his two dogs. According to private investigator Ken Gamble, who had been following him, Foster spent the past two weeks holed up in the house, only leaving to walk the dogs on the beach. It is alleged Foster had been attempting to negotiate the lease of a Palm Cove villa for $950 a week and had been considering buying a $1m mega yacht Achilles III which was moored at the marina.
Mr Gamble said Foster had been hatching a plan to use the yacht to flee the country.
His investigative firm IWF Global was hired by an Asianbased client who was allegedly ripped off by someone named “Bill Dawson” after being encouraged to invest $1.85m into a company named Sports Predictions.
Detectives spent several hours at the Port Douglas property on Thursday before driving Foster to Cairns.
Speaking outside court, Mr Lewis, from Sydneybased firm Bilias and Associates, said he did not wish to comment on the case as he did not have instructions from his client to speak.
NSW detectives are due to fly into Cairns over the weekend to take Foster into custody. It is understood they are due to fly back to Sydney on Monday.
A police spokesman confirmed Foster’s two dogs were being cared for.