You can’t kid a kidder and it’s not a great idea to scam a scammer either.
But Emmerdale’s Kerry Wyatt (Laura Norton) is nothing if not ambitious when it comes to money making schemes.
Having conned her ex out of all his swanky jewellery during a cruise ship scam and being currently embroiled in a tax evasion scam that sees her married to Eric Pollard (Chris Chittell), Kerry is no stranger to illegal schemes.
That doesn’t mean she doesn’t have a conscience though, and when she uncovers that Caleb Milligan (William Ash) is at the centre of a plot, she’s initially ready to blow the whistle.
Oh but then Caleb reminds her what a rat he can be and she decides he doesn’t deserve saving after all.
It comes about when her boyfriend Jai Sharma (Chris Bisson) goes away and leaves son Archie in her care. She has to leave work early one day to collect him from school, which sees Caleb shame her for her lazy work ethic. He then favours Billy Fletcher (Jay Kontzle) over her for bringing in new business, and Kerry’s back is firmly up.
Caleb is distracted by a call from his daughter Steph asking for money, so he trusts his new favourite employee with his bank details and tells him to send her five grand for a deposit on a London flat.
Billy really is the good egg that Caleb thinks, and he does exactly what he’s told.
But elsewhere, Ruby Miligan (Beth Cordingly) is revealing to Chas Dingle (Lucy Pargeter) that Steph is currently in Thailand, AKA very definitely not buying a London flat – the real giveaway should have been that the deposit was only costing £5K in this climate.
It may not come as a surprise that Steph was not asking for the money, but it may shock you to know who was – Archie. The ingenious teen has made an AI sample of Steph’s voice, and not long after the call to Caleb, £5,000 lands in his account.
Kerry catches him listening to the AI and later finds out about the money in his account, which sets her suspicions ablaze.
‘They [Archie and Kerry] have a big to-do about it. She pulls him on it, and there’s a bit of a to-do where she’s trying to get him to explain what’s going on because she’s really freaked out about it,’ actress Laura Norton tells Metro. ‘She thinks it’s really weird or creepy.’
Initially, Kerry decides to do the right thing, but after a run-in with Caleb, decides he deserves what he gets.
‘He was so rude to her and wouldn’t let her speak. She does it out of spite. She knows it’s wrong but she’s like “do you know what? If you’re going to speak to me like that, you can get lost. I was going to try and help you but now you can have a taste of your own medicine”’.
Instead of coming clean, she realises she has a prodigy in the mix and plans to use this for her revenge. But no doubt this scam will come to light and then goodness knows what will happen to Kerry when Jai finds out. Laura has already hinted that maybe Kerry and Jai are not in it for the long haul.
‘The characters are so different, at the moment, I can’t see that far into the future. Would it stand the test of time? As time goes on and a relationship with complications arise, they’re so different I don’t know if they would iron them out of if they would get in the way,’ Laura teased. Could this be the thing to break them?
