Cherie Blair Conman Released Early From Jail

A convicted conman who once helped Tony Blair's wife buy two flats has been released early from jail in Australia.

The Federal Court in Brisbane approved Peter Foster's bid for freedom after serving a year of the 18-month prison sentence.

Foster was set free despite having earlier been on the run for a year, when he disappeared in 2013 after failing to show up to a court hearing.

He was eventually jailed for an earlier offence of promoting a mouth spray that was falsely marketed as a weight-loss product.

The 53-year-old was also convicted of assaulting police and resisting arrest which occurred when officers found him hiding out near the resort town of Byron Bay, 500 miles (800km) north of Sydney.

Foster met Cherie Blair in the early 2000s because she was a friend of his girlfriend Carole Caplin.

When their business relationship became public, Mrs Blair was forced to issue a tearful apology in which she admitted she had made mistakes.

Foster had previously been jailed and fined several times for a range of offences including marketing scams.

On his most recent sentencing, the judge did not jail him for the assault and resisting arrest convictions, but ordered him instead to serve out the sentence he had previously failed to appear for.

At the Federal Court hearing Justice John Logan warned him to stay out of trouble until his full sentence has expired.

Asked what his plans were now that he was a free man, Foster told reporters that it was "a bit early in the day for a lap dance."

"So I think I'll just go home to my mum and make a cup of tea, hold her hand and tell her I'm sorry for the last 12 months," he said.