On 28 February 2025, HHJ Dixon, sitting at Sheffield Crown Court, sentenced 9 defendants to a total of almost 24 years’ imprisonment for conspiracy to defraud and money laundering arising out of a £13.5 million modelling scam. The principal defendant, Philip Foster, was sentenced to 8½ years’ immediate custody.
The fraud, which was predominantly perpetrated in Bristol, London, Manchester, Leeds, Coventry and Nottingham, but run from Spain, involved making victims think they had a good chance of earning money as professional models. Instead, predominantly young people and mothers ended up parting with substantial amounts of money for poor quality, digital photographs that stood no real chance of landing them professional jobs.
The case was bought by the National Trading Standards Regional Investigation and eCrime Team, hosted by the City of York, following an investigation that lasted several years.
National press coverage can be found here:
The case included successful interlocutory appeals in R v AUH [2022] EWCA Crim 1113 and [2023] EWCA Crim 6, in which the Court of Appeal confirmed the power of local authorities to prosecute consumer offences, inclusive of money laundering and conspiracy to defraud, out-of-area. Previous articles on these appeals can be found here and here.
Confiscation proceedings are presently progressing.
Cameron Crowe and Sabrina Goodchild were instructed throughout the case and presented the case at sentence. Jonathan Kirk KC advised from the outset and led the team up to and including the Court of Appeal.
