FOSTER’S ESCAPE PLAN
King con had yacht ready when police swooped
NOTORIOUS con man Peter Foster had booked flights to New Caledonia where a luxury yacht was waiting when police swooped on him at a Paradise Point coffee shop yesterday. The Gold Coast’s bestknown shyster is back behind bars after being charged with defrauding a West Australian businessman of more than $1.5 million in an alleged sports betting scam. Foster begged not to be returned to jail, saying he was vulnerable after turning informer on alleged murderer John Chardon.
NOTORIOUS con man Peter Foster allegedly operated a sports betting scam inside jail and was attempting to flee the Gold Coast to a luxury yacht overseas before his arrest yesterday.
The 54-year-old was intercepted by detectives at a Paradise Point coffee shop, taken to the Southport Watchhouse and later court where detectives sought his extradition to NSW on fraud charges.
A Bulletin investigation can reveal Foster:
Allegedly used a mobile phone in jail between 2014 and 2015 for private legal calls to conduct a sports betting scam.
Has been renting a Sovereign Islands luxury home for $2000 a week and, facing financial difficulty, was looking to set up a new venture.
Was booked to leave the Coast as early as January 27, using a Main Beach travel agency to secure business-class flights to New Caledonia.
Intended to spend more than a week with a business associate in Noumea preparing to relocate a luxury yacht to the Cook Islands.
After securing the yacht he was booked to fly to Japan and then Vietnam where he would meet a consultant to launch his new business.
The Bulletin has been told NSW fraud squad detectives and the federal police had been monitoring Foster since Tuesday, conducting surveillance on the northern Coast.
“They had been hatching a plan to go for some time, to leave Australia and go to Noumea and then Vietnam,” a pri- vate investigator said of Foster’s plans.
“He was meeting up with an IT guy. They had no idea about the surveillance.”
About 200 investors in 2015 were alleged to have lost $12 million from his Sports Trading Club (STC) betting operation. NSW police launched their current investigation, sparking yesterday’s court appearance, after some of Foster’s clients made a complaint.
Private investigators representing STC clients first approached Foster’s interstate lawyer in March 2015. A docu- ment from the lawyer reveals the investigators had evidence alleging only $900,000 of $23 million given by members was invested in trades and bets.
The investigators also alleged about 95 per cent of funds were transferred to a Hong Kong bank account.
The lawyer, in the brief to STC, said he saw a brief of evidence and “they can prove Foster was running STC from jail” and a business associate was calling “multiple times each day”.
“These conversations were taped by the prison and are available as evidence if necessary,” the lawyer wrote.
Foster was allegedly able to run the STC business in jail by convincing prison officials to give him access to a mobile telephone number he said belonged to his lawyer.
Foster was in the Brisbane Correctional Centre and later Wolston Correctional Centre when he allegedly listed a Melbourne lawyer on his prison telephone list for “legal and professional privileged” calls.
But an intelligence brief, prepared by a private investigator, claims the pair did not have a business relationship before jail. Foster had allegedly managed to convince prison authorities to accept not only an office mobile number but a Skype number.
But the Skype number, unknown to the Melbourne lawyer, was created by staff working for Foster’s STC scheme and it enabled him to talk to a key London consultant, it is alleged.
A Queensland Corrective Services spokesman last night said: “Due to privacy provisions, QCS does not discuss individual prisoners.”