Australians disown fraudster

When Australians make headlines overseas, their compatriots usually make a song and dance about it. But in the case of Peter Foster, unusual restraint has been shown.

The unfolding scandal is being followed with interest in Australia but media reports have avoided highlighting his background. The convicted fraudster, who grew up on Queensland's Gold Coast, was a national embarrassment before Cheriegate broke. Now Australians would be happy to disown him.

The prospect of him returning to Australia, which recently demanded custody of the Ashes trophy after winning another series against England's cricket team, does not appeal. A cartoon in The Daily Telegraph, a Sydney tabloid, shows police carrying two large crates, one marked "The Ashes" and the other "Peter Foster". The caption reads: "The Ashes are returned to Australia, on one strict condition."

There is widespread astonishment that the Prime Minister's wife was so naive as to become involved with Mr Foster at all.

"Cherie Blair is a real smart cookie," wrote Bruce Wilson, a journalist. "And she has been taken in by a two-bit Australian conman who has sold everything but the Harbour Bridge to passers-by and who is known to anyone who has taken a stroll down London's Fleet Street as a pedlar of snake oil anti-fat remedies... Did Cherie Booth QC never wonder who her new found helper was?"

The Sunday Age, a Melbourne newspaper, said: "Australian-born Peter Foster has built his formidable reputation as an international conman and consummate liar on the broken hopes and dreams of vulnerable women. But Mrs Blair hardly fits the mould of Foster's typical prey.

"Indeed, that Mrs Blair should put her faith in Foster, a man whose infamy stretches from Australia to Britain and the US after being jailed for fraud on three continents, defies belief."

Yet some Australians could not resist a sneaking regard for Mr Foster's success in pulling off yet another outrageous stunt. "In a way, if he hasn't swindled you of your money, you could have a kind of grudging admiration for him, if only for his chutzpah," wrote Mr Wilson in The Daily Telegraph.

"Pictures and TV show a shifty little fellow with a mean mouth, cold eyes, receding hair and a bad tie. You would not believe anyone would buy a used cufflink from him."