Socialite Victoria Baker-Harber has shared an insight into her time ‘on the run’ while her husband – also known as the man behind the ‘largest art fraud in American history’ – was evading the authorities.
The Made in Chelsea star, 37, admitted that being off-grid as the FBI attempted to track down Inigo Philbrick, 38, ‘wasn’t so bad after all’.
Speaking to the BBC for a new documentary on the now famous ‘swindler’ that was eventually sentenced to seven years in prison, and ordered to pay $86 million (£80 million) in fraud restitution, she remarked that their time ‘in hiding’ was actually ‘great’.
Fresh off the intoxicating lifestyle of constant partying everywhere from Mykonos to St Tropez, sculpted by the gallerist’s ‘selling and reselling shares’ in paintings worth millions, the couple found themselves in the remote island of Vanuatu in the Pacific Ocean in early 2020.
The world had just been turned upside down by the Covid pandemic, and the couple were very much confined to their idyllic abode.
‘So we arrive on this island on the other side of the world and then it suddenly did feel like, “god we’re so far away”,’ Victoria said. ‘It did feel like we’d run away.’
She said that at first, it was ‘not as she’d imagined it’, remarking that ‘it was just a million miles away from anything that I’d ever experienced’.
‘Victoria is ultra aware of class and what’s luxury and what isn’t,’ Inigo – who is currently on a supervised release since 2024, shared in the programme.
Socialite Victoria Baker-Harber (pictured) has shared an insight into her time ‘on the run’ while her husband – also known as the man behind the ‘largest art fraud in American history’ – was evading the authorities
Speaking to the BBC for a new documentary on the now famous ‘swindler’ that was eventually sentenced to seven years in prison, and ordered to pay $86 million in fraud restitution, she remarked that their time ‘in hiding’ was actually ‘great’. Both pictured in 2018
Fresh off the intoxicating lifestyle of constant partying everywhere from Mykonos to St Tropez, sculpted by the gallerist’s ‘selling and reselling shares’ in paintings worth millions, the couple found themselves in the remote islands of Vanuatu in the Pacific Ocean in early 2020
The world had just been turned upside down by the Covid pandemic, and the couple were very much confined to their idyllic abode
‘That first hotel we stayed in was as bad a package holiday experience as you could possibly hope to have.’
‘Abattoir lighting and sound of mosquitoes…. I did have moments where I was like, I can’t do this,’ Victoria continued. ‘Like this is so not my life.
‘I guess it was the beginning of the end of the adventure – but it was the beginning of a new adventure.’
By March of that year, they had officially already spent ‘four months on the run’ and Victoria said things had started to fall into place.
‘Neither of us had driving licenses so we conned our way into getting a license,’ she explained.
‘It was a very like clean, healthy way of living – especially in comparison to how we’d lived at moments before.’
‘We were playing tennis, we were swimming,’ Inigo added, also revealing the pair had adopted a dog they called Bacchus – also the name of the Roman god of wine, fertility, and revelry.
Victoria said the change in Inigo – who she joined on the plane from Miami after people started to catch onto the fraudster’s multimillion dollar scheme – was immense.
What followed was a tumultuous trial that resulted in Inigo being sentenced to seven years in prison – and ordered to pay back the $86 million he owed
By March of that year, they had officially already spent ‘four months on the run’ and Victoria said things had started to fall into place
Victoria said the change in Inigo – who she joined on the plane from Miami after people started to catch onto the fraudster’s multimillion dollar scheme – was immense
‘He was not this person who was anxiously pacing around on the phone all the time,’ she shared. ‘It was a completely different Inigo.
‘We were in a country on an island which has absolutely nothing coming in and out. No one could chase him even if they wanted to – and Inigo was happy.’
One June 11, 2020, the couple were out on the island looking through the shops – on the hunt for a place that was ‘meant to have a really good green tea cheesecake’.
‘We were just like pottering around,’ Victoria – who was then six months pregnant – said. ‘His face just went white and they were all standing there and it looked like, from what I remember, it was bullet proof vests.
‘They said, “are you Inigo Philbrick?” And he said yes. And then suddenly more men came in with bulletproof vests on. They’re like, “you’re coming with us”.’
Inigo was then placed into a car and Victoria, who insisted she wanted to join, was in the vehicle behind his.
Initially they were driven to the airport where she then saw Inigo being ‘marched’ to a jet – something she initially thought was an ‘abduction’.
‘I didn’t know who had sent this plane,’ Victoria said. ‘Whether it was Russians, Saudis… Mafia. I just thought – remember this tail number.’
Inigo and Victoria, both pictured, spent months during the Covid pandemic ‘on the run’ together
Victoria said life on ‘the run’ for her and Inigo was ‘great’ and that he was ‘happy’ while they were on the island
When she was able to track down the plane’s owner, she realised it was an aircraft that was sometimes leased out to the US government – with the couple then learning it was an extradition rather than a ‘crazy revenge scheme’.
What followed was a tumultuous trial that resulted in Inigo being sentenced to seven years in prison – and ordered to pay back the $86 million he owed.
The owner and location of the Stingel painting- one of the many artworks embroiled in the fraud – are part of a confidential settlement, the BBC stated.
It also added: ‘Philbrick’s financial advisor Robert Newland was sentenced to 20 months in prison. He declined to participate in this documentary.
‘Inigo Philbrick has not paid back the $86 million.’
Reflecting on the case, Attorney Judd Grossman said: ‘Here we are, years after his fraud was revealed, and he was finally captured after going on the run, all of his victims… they live with this on a daily basis. In large part because everything’s still making its way through the court system.’
‘Inigo’s story is a tale of green and arrogance,’ Eileen Kinsella, Senior Reporter at Artnet News, added. ‘The big question is, where is all the money and where is all the artwork?’
Elsewhere, artist Jake Chapman however felt that Inigo is not the only one to blame.
Elsewhere earlier this year Victoria welcomed a second daughter, just a year after she hastily tied the knot with her husband following his release from prison. Both pictured
‘To villify a person for their transgressive antics in the art world is just simply blaming one person for the crimes of the many,’ he shared.
‘It must send a shiver down the back of every other collector and gallerist because they know that one by one degree of separation they’re doing the same thing
Defending her husband, Victoria also added: ‘You could say he’s a criminal but like, who hasn’t done something illegal?
‘But when you play at such a high end of life there are huge risks and gambles that people take and some get away with them.’
Meanwhile on his end – Inigo, who has since his freedom posted an Insta snap with his ankle monitor – concluded: ‘I’m obviously in no position to do anything but say how sorry I am, but there is a small part of me that thinks – what about all the good deals?’
Elsewhere earlier this year Victoria welcomed a second daughter, just a year after she hastily tied the knot with her husband following his release from prison.
The reality star joined the E4 show in 2011, where she became known for her sassy, no-nonsense attitude and close friendship with Mark-Francis Vandelli.
Taking to Instagram to share the happy news in May, Victoria revealed she’d given birth to a baby girl named Astra.
Victoria pictured in the documentary, as she recounted what it was like when Inigo was extradited
Announcing the birth of her baby on Instagram, Victoria gushed: ‘Welcome to the world our beautiful little angel girl! Astra August Philbrick, May 5th 2025, 7Ilbs 5oz. You have already made us the happiest people on this planet.’
Congratulations quickly flowed in for the former reality star, and her latest family addition.
Victoria wed Inigo in a ‘quickie ceremony without guests’ last Monday, which came after he served two years of a seven-year sentence for defrauding wealthy clients, forging documents and faking an investor.
After officially tying the knot, the couple, who share daughter Gaia, three, said at the time they planned to celebrate with family and friends when Inigo’s electronic tag was taken off.
Their marriage is to help secure an American visa for Victoria, who is half British, half Australian, with the former E4 reality star admitting in a recent interview, ‘Not the wedding that I’ve pictured since I was nine…’
In a 2024 interview with the Sunday Times Magazine, Inigo admitted he didn’t feel any guilt about breaking the law, saying he was merely overambitious and ‘greedy’, and his crimes didn’t lead to anyone’s death.
‘There are a lot of people who look at it and say, Look, I didn’t kill anyone; I didn’t do anything violent in any sort of way,’ he shared.
‘Beyond that, the people who are involved in my case… no one missed a meal; nobody didn’t send their children to university. I don’t think that anyone in this whole story is guilty of much more than greed and ambition.
‘I don’t think any good business happens without ambition, and I think greed is a natural human state. I’d feel a lot more guilt if I had been drink-driving or if I’d been selling drugs and someone had died.’
The former gallery owner added he would have no problem being transparent about his crimes with three-year-old Gaia because ‘a lot can be learned’ from his experience.
Victoria met Inigo in 2016 on a friend’s yacht in the Mediterranean when the father-of-two was still with his ex-girlfriend, with whom he shares another daughter.
She vowed to stand by him throughout his prison sentence, calling Inigo the ‘love of her life’ and insisting, ‘There’s no way I was going to get up and let him go through whatever s*** was going to come his way on his own.’
And Inigo says being inside only strengthened his feelings for Victoria, even having a V tattoo on his chest, which was done for him by one of his fellow inmates.
Victoria, who was raised in Belgravia, London, found fame on E4’s Made In Chelsea in 2011, where she became known for her sassy, no-nonsense attitude and close friendship with Mark-Francis Vandelli.
And now Victoria has used her TV contacts to land a show where she and Inigo talk about his fraudulent crimes and prison experience, which she says was her husband’s idea.
Speaking to the Mail in 2023, she also said: ‘I’m doing a documentary. It’s about my fiancé and his time in prison. It’s wild… He’s all for it. It was his idea.’
She added: ‘He didn’t murder anyone. He put his hands up and admitted what he did do, and takes full responsibility and accountability, but everyone makes mistakes.’
