Foster blended in with hippy style

Peter Foster's neighbours say they had no idea they were living next to the notorious conman until his dramatic arrest.

The 52-year-old, has put on weight, grown his hair long and hidden his face behind a beard during his year on the run.

He was arrested by police in scrub at Ewingsdale, northern NSW on Tuesday.

Foster's neighbour Sam Buckle said he had never seen him around but even if he had, he wouldn't have been suspicious.

"I remember him from when I was young and all the slimming scams and stuff he was involved in. But you wouldn't recognise the guy today if you walked right past him 100 times," Mr Buckle told The Courier-Mail.

"He looks like so many of the old guys that come out of the hills around Byron (Bay) so he probably blended right in.

"The landlord is in Sydney at the moment but she'll spin out when she hears Peter Foster was arrested right here."

Mr Buckle said his girlfriend, Marlen Wolff, had witnessed the arrest who took place in their backyard.

"Marlen had only been home five or 10 minutes when the cops came running through the backyard and tackled what she described as a fat, old guy in the yard," he said.

"They handcuffed him under a tree and he was collapsed on the ground, coughing and spluttering."

Foster had been in hiding since September 2013, when the Federal Court in Brisbane found him guilty of contempt for flouting a 2005 ban on him participating in the weight-loss industry.

The ban was imposed after he conned $6 million from 90 investors in the infamous SensaSlim scam.

He was sentenced, in his absence, to a three-year jail term for the contempt offence, with at least 18 months of that to be served behind bars.

Foster is expected to be returned to Queensland to serve his outstanding sentence.

Foster was convicted on Wednesday in a NSW court of assaulting police and resisting arrest after pleading guilty to both charges.