Foster leaves trail of arrest warrants in South Pacific

He was arrested in his underpants in Fiji after diving into a river to evade police. Peter Foster was also credited with a part in that country's recent coup.

Now the Australian conman at the centre of the "Cheriegate" scandal, who was let out on bail after being arrested in Fiji last October, is on the run again. He is being sought by four nations as he criss-crosses the South Pacific, leaving a trail of angry victims in his wake.

After several months on and off the run in Fiji, where he tried to blacken the name of a rival property developer, Foster is believed to have fled to neighbouring Vanuatu, where he is now being hunted by police. The Fiji authorities are still on his trail, assisted by Australia and the tiny nation of the Federated States of Micronesia wants to question Foster about new allegations that he defrauded the government of $580,000 (£297,000).

In Fiji, Foster walked out of a hotel where he was supposedly under 24-hour guard. Australian media reported yesterday that members of the Fiji military helped him to escape to Vanuatu. Alarm bells rang after he failed to appear in court in Suva, the Fijian capital, on Monday.

The South Pacific nation has been under military rule for the past month, since Commodore Frank Bainimarama overthrew the democratically elected Prime Minister, Laisenia Qarase.

Foster, according to allegations that emerged last week, took part in a sting operation to document corruption in Mr Qarase's government. Reports claim that, acting on instructions from the military, he secretly recorded meetings with a number of Fijian politicians where they admitted to rigging votes in a general election last May.

A former boyfriend of the glamour model, Samantha Fox, Foster has served jail terms in Britain, Australia and the US, mainly for peddling bogus slimming aids. Cherie Blair was forced to issue a tearful apology in 2002 after it emerged that he had helped her to buy two cut-price flats in Bristol. He was the partner of Mrs Blair's "lifestyle guru", Carole Caplin, at the time.

After being threatened with deportation, Foster returned to Australia in 2003. But for the past year or so he has concentrated his energies on Fiji. He rented a house on Denarau Island, near Nadi, where he was joined by his mother, Louise, and older sister, Jill, and he embarked on a series of business ventures.

Late last year he was accused of smearing a New Zealand property developer, Evan Williams, who had bought a block of land at Champagne Beach, an idyllic spot on the Yasawa chain of islands. He was also wanted for alleged mortgage fraud and failing to declare his criminal record when he entered Fiji. In October, he was arrested and given bail, but then disappeared again.

Australian Federal Police said yesterday that they warned Fijian authorities last week that Foster was trying to quit the country.

He's trouble ...

* 1980s: Tried claiming insurance for a cancelled boxing match in Australia. Fined for fraud. Later declared bankrupt.

* 1988: Flees Britain to avoid prosecution over bogus slimming aid, Bai Lin tea.

* 1989: Jailed in Los Angeles for four months over another bogus slimming aid.

* 1994: Fined £21,000 in UK after admitting trade description offences over Bai Lin tea.

* 1995: Given two years for promoting 'slimming granules'. Serves nine months and flees to Australia. Spends 18 months in prison fighting extradition.

* 2000: Deported from UK after admitting charges relating to a 'thigh reduction' cream.

* September 2002: Returns to UK but is barred from entering. Allowed to stay and appeal.

* December 2002: Foster, now the partner of Cherie Blair's friend Carole Caplin, is used as a financial adviser to help Mrs Blair buy two flats in Bristol.

* January 2003: Flees to Ireland after deportation order.

* February 2003: Criminal Assets Bureau in Ireland begins to investigate him.

* October 2006: Arrested in Fiji.