Page 30 , Tuesday, July 28, 2020 Daily Mail, Tuesday, July 28, 2020 Page 31 It’s the chapter you won’t read in a new by Frances memoir touted by fraudster Peter Foster: Hardy How he ruined the life of the teenage diet E T E R F o s ter — emollient, duplicitous and utterly without principle queen he groomed, then abandoned. Here, — is one of the world’s most ­accomplished conmen. PHe famously duped Page 3 girl Sam Fox, she tells her story for the first time – and inveigled his way into the trust of the then Prime Minister’s wife and persuaded the Duchess of York to endorse his bogus slimming products. claims he left her pregnant with twins… But few people outside her home city of Liverpool know the story of former Young Slimmer of the Year Michele Deakin, the The beauty and the baddie: Peter Foster with former Page 3 girl impressionable and starstruck teenager he Sam Fox, whom he was dating when he first met Michele hoodwinked and deceived more ­monstrously than any of the thousands of appearing on TV shows, promoting us all. I think the shock and stress victims of his many scams. his slimming aid alongside her of it made Dad ill — shortly after Foster has earned millions from defraud­ Deakin Diet and falsely claiming he died of a heart attack — and for ing the gullible, but his crimes against she had lost 12 st with the help of me it was just horrific.’ Michele, now 51, were far more heinous. the granules. Worse was to come. Trading ‘I was a virgin when I met him and he After her first meeting with Standards raided the Deakins’ groomed me, seduced me and proposed to ­Foster, she remained with him and home. Michele was charged with me,’ she tells me. ‘I loved him and thought says she did not return home to conspiracy (with Foster) to offer he was this amazing, charismatic person. Liverpool for almost two years. the Deakin Diet under a false But he promised me the Earth and ‘I was given the main bedroom in trade description. ­delivered nothing. his house with a hot tub, Jacuzzi At Liverpool Crown Court, on the ‘Then he destroyed my good name and and en-suite. It was unbelievable. advice of her lawyers, she pleaded Final ‘He took me to posh restaurants guilty. But she stood in the dock left me standing alone in the dock at ­Liverpool Crown Court pregnant with his and London casinos. He’d flash the twins. He never saw them and now he cash and give huge tips. He’d give denies they are his. I brought them up me thousands of pounds worth of alone without a penny from him and lived chips and I’d gamble and lose ‘I was pregnant as a virtual recluse. them all. ‘Every day has been a battle, but I’ve ‘He sent me on shopping sprees coped,’ she smiles ruefully. ‘Perhaps I’m with wads of cash with his security and scared, but stronger than I thought.’ guard. I had a rail of Dior and Michele is speaking for the first time now, ­Versace dresses in my bedroom I kept it secret’ exclusively to the Mail, as Foster, 57, who and mink coats. It was a totally has served multiple prison sentences for different world from the one I’d , announces his intention to write his cruel known and I was blown away.’ autobiography while making the improb­ What Michele did not realise, alone as Foster had absconded. able declaration that he has ‘reformed’. I however, was that she was Foster’s (The law did not catch up with him ask Michele if she thinks he is capable of cash cow. Pre-paid orders for his for five years and he was imprisoned slimming granules — which it later for the offence for two years emerged were made from guar in 1996.) gum and merely induced flatulence It was as she stood in the ‘That man has — were flooding in thanks to her dock that Michele realised she endorsement of them. was pregnant. He had also seduced Michele. ‘I’d missed my period. I was being more faces than a She now believes he was two- sick. I was scared but I just kept it ­timing her with Sam Fox. ‘We’d secret,’ she recalls. ‘I felt ashamed town hall clock ’ of been out for the evening to a about the fat con, scared about ­restaurant, had a drink. I was a the future. Everything I’d dreamed

one/rex secret t ­virgin, totally innocent and he of had crumbled to dust.’ rehabilitation. She laughs. She has a charmed me,’ she says. He set the She was given a six-month prison ­Liverpudlian’s wry humour. scene at his house in Hadley Wood sentence, suspended for two years. ‘That man has more faces than a town with champagne, flowers Her daughters were born in 1991 and candles. and she faced life as a lone parent hall clock,’ she says. ‘Do I think he’s ress/denniss reformed? No, it’s baloney. He’s a narcissist. p ‘Afterwards, he proposed to me. of twins. He exploits other people without any guilt He bought me a ring with a huge, ‘I thought, “How the hell will I or shame and he believes his own lies. cope?” ’ she says. But I did. I got ‘He’s still conning people out of millions by. I worked for 12 years as a but no prosecution seems to stick. I’d like Cherie Blair’s hotel receptionist.’ to confront him. He ruined me but I want ‘He had such Foster, meanwhile, was him to know I’m not broken.’ ­uncontactable. When the twins Foster, an Australian, drives an open-top were three, Michele secured a

Bentley sports car, lives in a luxury water­ ones/brendanbierne/uk charisma, like a meeting — typically stage- side mansion on Queensland’s Gold Coast j ­managed and ostentatious — with

ony and spends as ostentatiously as he ever t magic power’ his mother Louise. Michele, her did, thanks to the proceeds of the mum and the twins met her in a ­estimated £18 million he has allegedly private room at an exclusive hotel fleeced from investors in his latest scam, a in Oxford Street, London. phoney Sports Trading Club. pink Chopard diamond in the ‘There were dozens of cuddly Michele’s means are more modest. She is shape of a heart. toys piled on the table alongside a lone parent, recently separated from her ‘Of course I said yes. He had such an envelope stuffed with thou- husband, and a full-time carer for charisma. It was like a magic sands of pounds in cash,’ says her non-verbal, severely autistic a man as conman practised in both acclaim as Young Slimmer of the wildest dreams. Dad, who’d been five-star country house hotel in power. I was so happy.’ Michele. ‘Louise gushed, “The girls son Troy, five. She shares a ­wheedling and charm. Year. Her secret? ill with cancer, just wanted the Hadley Wood, North London. Pictures: alandavidson/an But Michele barely had time to are princesses! Peter will love detached house on a neat estate in Michele was just 19 when she ‘Sensible eating and exercise,’ best for me and here was Foster ‘An open fire was crackling; wait­ Teen queen: Young Slimmer Michele in 1988. Above, luxuriate in her engagement when them. We will look after you.” ’ Liverpool with mum Esther, 82. first came to his attention. The she says. ‘It was all down to saying he’d pay us £1,000 if we just resses were scurrying around her life of affluence turned to dust. Foster failed to materialise. ‘I At times she struggles to stem privately educated, only child of ­willpower and determination.’ came to talk to him.’ bringing us drinks. Foster wasn’t from top: Before she lost weight, Foster with ‘People had been complaining to took two big dolls for the girls but tears, which are rarely more than a taxi driver Lenny Deakin and his Michele was the star of an awards Lured by these extravagant there but the scene was set. He in 2002 and with a policeman in 2000 Trading Standards about the diet left all the money on the table. I blink away. Her twins, born wife Esther, a stay-at-home mum, ceremony at London Zoo where pledges, the family was ensnared. had arranged it all to impress us. granules. Stories had started to decided I didn’t want anything to ­Rachael and Rebecca in February she was the apple of her doting the paparazzi gathered. ‘I had my A Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit with a ‘He sent his Rolls-Royce to take me. Then he said, “This imagine how she was promised £1,000 a week [which appear in the papers that they’d do with it — or him any more. 1991, are now 29. Rachael is an air parents’ eyes. hair and make-up done, I was all us to his house. It was so opulent, is your house now. My home found the ostenta- never materialised] as long as I sent money and never received the When I contacted Peter Foster he steward with Emirates airways, ‘As an only child I was spoilt dressed up. I said I wanted to help a billionaire’s mansion with a is yours.” tious wealth and the didn’t put on any weight.’ product,’ she says. insisted he is not the father of ­living in Dubai. Rebecca has tran­ ­rotten,’ she says. ‘I had lots of toys people lose weight with the Deakin ­swimming pool, helipad and ‘He gave Dad an envelope with extravagant display A less credulous person may have ‘Everything was unravelling. Michele’s twins, claiming he left sitioned, lives as a man, Maxwell and sweets, which I shared with Diet,’ she remembers. ‘He sent a Rolls tennis courts. £1,000 in cash in it, gave him huge o f a p p r o b a t i o n questioned the authenticity of Peter said there was a problem at England for Australia in 1988 when Deakin, and owns two tattoo everyone. Friends were always She won £1,000 and a holiday at a ‘And inside it was like a party: cigars and opened a £1,000 bottle irresistible. Foster’s scheme, but he was adept the factory. He asked me to go a warrant was issued for his arrest. ­parlours. ‘I’m proud of them both. ringing the doorbell. sports resort in La Manga, Spain. for me and gave balloons, banners with my name of wine.’ ‘He told me he was in the techniques of manipulation back home while he “sorted it all ‘Unless I sh***ed her from 18,000 They’ve done well,’ she says. ‘But as I got older I put on a lot The attention was dizzying. on them; huge bouquets of flowers Michele was ushered into a din- going to launch the and sweet-talking. His mother out”.’ So Michele returned to miles then it’s complete bull****,’ While Foster first gained notori­ of weight. I got so big I stopped But it was the dramatic transfor­ and a Nebuchadnezzar of cham­ ing room where Foster had gath- Deakin Diet and Louise, whom Michele describes as ­Liverpool and there the scope and he says, claiming he has also ety in the UK for flogging ‘miracle’ enjoying life. My friends were all mation of her appearance — encap­ my dad £1,000’ pagne [the equivalent of 20 stand­ ered an array of business associ- said it would be a ‘Ghislaine Maxwell figure’, was scale of Foster’s deception swiftly offered to take a DNA test. slimming products, he burst into going out with boys and I was sulated in the ‘before’ and ‘after’ ard bottles] all in my honour. ates, among them his girlfriend, marketed with a the conduit between the two of emerged. Their anxiety mounting, Michele, who hopes to lose weight the news again in 2002 when he ­sitting at home on my own. photos of her in the tabloids — ‘He greeted me with, “G’day” and glamour model Sam Fox, a s l i m m i n g a i d , them, welcoming her into their her Dad drove down to Hadley and relaunch her Deakin Diet, has helped negotiate the purchase ‘I was due to go on a family holi­ that caught Foster’s attention and liveried chauffeur arrived at the a kiss on each cheek. He was producer from Blind granules which he family, orchestrating the scam Wood to confront him. this riposte: ‘I’d say to him, “You price of two flats in Bristol on day and I was dreading it. That’s set his rapacious mind whirring. Deakins’ home the next day. expensively suited and booted Date and a Sky TV called “willpower which relied on her compliance. ‘When he got to the mansion could have had a lovely life with a behalf of Cherie Blair, the QC wife when I decided to lose weight.’ He wasted no time in ringing the ‘I was just swept away with the with a showy watch and he smelt executive. She was in a bottle”. Sam Foster sent Michele’s parents on there was no one there. The house family and you’re clever and of the then Prime Minister Tony. Michele did so with spectacular family home and ingratiating him­ glamour of it all,’ says Michele. ‘I gorgeous. But what struck me i n t r o d u c e d t o Fox told me she’d extravagant holidays in private was deserted, completely empty. ­charismatic enough to have made Foster was then the boyfriend of results. At almost 5 ft 10 in tall, she self with Michele’s dad. ‘He said he was a young girl being whisked most was his charm. He cast a retired boxer Bunny made a lot of money ­villas in Malta and Marbella: ‘I Apparently, it had been rented and a lot of money legitimately. Instead, the Blairs’ personal trainer Carole whittled her weight down from was going to set up a company for away down the motorway in an spell over me. Johnson (a former British heavy- promoting Bai Lin tea, another of realise now it was all part of the as soon as Foster knew trouble was you chose to con people.” Caplin. He has always had a beguil­ 22 st to 10 st in just over a year. The my Deakin Diet and make me a expensive car. ‘I was this teenager from weight champ) who was to be her his weight-loss products. She had plot. He wanted them out of the brewing he’d packed up and fled. ‘I’d love to believe he’d reformed. ing way with women and the naïve, transformation was so dramatic millionaire,’ she says. ‘Mum and Dad came with me ­Liverpool and he was showing me minder. ‘Everyone there was in awe advertised it and it all seemed way so they didn’t question what I ‘We all realised then that it had But I think it’s just another of his teenage Michele was easy prey for that in 1988 she won national ‘There were promises beyond my and we arrived at a beautiful his house and making a big fuss of of Foster,’ she says. It is easy to legitimate. I signed a contract and was doing,’ she says. She was been a huge con. Foster had duped empty promises.’