ARSON DAD'S pounds 2M DEBT; Millionaire was set to lose beloved family mansion.

Byline: BY ROD CHAYTOR

MISSING millionaire Christopher Foster had huge pounds 2million debts and was about to lose his dream mansion before it burnt to the ground.

The 50-year-old, who police fear may have killed his wife and teenage daughter then torched the pounds 1.2million house, owed more than pounds 1million to creditors of his failed firm and pounds 800,000 in tax.

Forensic teams were last night set to enter the house, in Maesbrook, Shrops, to begin searching for the bodies of Mr Foster, his wife Jill, 49, and their 15-year-old daughter Kirstie.

But one of his former associates yesterday claimed the tycoon had torched his home before fleeing to a "secret property" in Europe.

Leo Dennis, 44, said: "I don't think he's dead. He's got places he can go to, places scattered around Europe. These are properties that nobody knows about. He can go and just disappear."

Mr Dennis, of Telford, Shrops, who was involved in a failed land deal with Mr Foster in Cyprus, added: "He was not a very nice man and now, with what's happened, it will all come to light, everything he was involved in."

Administrators winding up Mr Foster's failed pipe insulation firm Ulva Ltd put a legal charge on his pounds 1.2million mansion three months ago. It is believed they had begun moves to sell the property to pay off his company's pounds 2million debts.

Police, hoping to enter the gutted house by today when it is made safe, are keeping an open mind. But they say the blaze was deliberate and have issued an all-ports warning. A source close to the investigation said last night: "The sort of lifestyle Mr Foster and his family enjoyed was not something he would have lightly given up.

"One of the factors we have to bear in mind is how Mr Foster would have felt if he knew all this was about to be taken away."

Mr Foster was said to have been "merry" at an all-day barbecue at a house in Maesbrook, near Oswestry, Shrops, on Bank Holiday Monday. A villager said: "They were among the last to leave at about 8.45pm. Walking, they would have been home just after nine."

The fire started at about 5am the next morning. Mr Foster, his wife and daughter, a student at pounds 16,500- a-year Ellesmere College, have not been seen since.

Yesterday, Mrs Foster's sister, Ann Giddings, of Perton, Wolverhampton, said: "We are all in limbo. Not knowing just makes it even more difficult."

Terrence Baines, an ex-accountant of Ulva Ltd, which went into liquidation last September, said: "He was a good family man and a very nice chap. He liked to live life big with holidays and cars."

Police stressed they had not ruled out another theory - that one of Mr Foster's apparently many business enemies had set fire to the house in revenge.

The blaze was started in the stables, the garage and the house where windows had apparently been boarded up from the inside.

CAPTION(S):

MISSING Daughter Kirstie, 15, is feared to be in ashes; LUXURY Magnificent living room of Christopher and Jill Foster, pictured at the barbecue hours before the huge blaze. And the imposing exterior, right