It’s a very bad idea to rip off Caleb Miligan, and two unlucky Emmerdale residents are about to learn the hard way. The unscrupulous Duke of the Depot walks a fine line between legitimate businessman and blatant crook. He’s about to trample all over that line.
The only reason he came to Emmerdale in the first place was to con Kim Tate out of her fortune because he blamed her for the death of his father, Frank Tate. Such was his hatred for the Queen of Home Farm that he was ruthless enough to coerce his own son Nicky into a loveless relationship with Gabby Thomas, merely because she stood to benefit from Kim’s finances. Oh, and he also buried the body of his wife Ruby’s abusive father, Anthony Fox, just to make sure she didn’t go down for his murder.
So it’s safe to say, Mister Miligan is going to be far from thrilled to discover that his employee, Kerry Wyatt, just conned him out of five thousand quid. Strictly speaking, it was Archie Breckle, the son of Caleb’s business partner Jai Sharma, who was the mastermind behind this insidious con job. The teenager used a sample of Caleb’s daughter Steph’s voice to create a misleading AI phone call, fooling Caleb into thinking she needed money to buy a flat in London… only to later learn from Ruby that Steph is in Thailand with no interest in living in the big smoke. A blatant scam. Seriously, what would five grand get you in London? A shed?
Instead of coming forward, Kerry didn’t take kindly to the way Caleb spoke to her at work so instead decided to not only keep the scam secret, but use it to give Caleb a taste of his own medicine. Needless to say, Caleb is going to go spare.
Emmerdale actor William Ash, who plays the cut-throat Dales businessman, teases his character’s explosive reaction. ‘He will go absolutely apoplectic,’ William reveals. ‘Humiliated. Because one, Archie is a little kid. And the other reason, he kind of really underestimates Kerry. She can come across as a bit empty headed sometimes, but she’s not. She’s quite smart, and she’s quite smart when it comes to this kind of stuff. Savvy. She’s got her finger on the pulse. But to find out that them two are taking her for a ride would make him furious.’
‘The fact that he thought his own daughter was asking him for something. It feels like a real invasion of his privacy and trust and the love he has with his daughter. Somebody has used that to manipulate the situation and take five thousand pounds off him, so he feels angry but he also feels humiliated by the experience just because of his ego. His ego is really bruised by it. He’s quite a hard-nosed businessman he feels like it could never happen to him.’
The Emmerdale star went on to reveal how this crushing blow to Caleb’s ego drives him to take control by dipping his toe in the criminal underworld. ‘He comes out of that humiliation feeling like he might be losing his edge. That all feeds Caleb’s ego wanting to be the one that does people over when he’s been done over.’
‘Also, he knows that Kerry has a fake handbag. He sees that Kerry has spent over the odds. It actually is fake. But she’s spent quite a bit of money on a fake one that looks real to save money. That’s the seed of it for him. There might be a lot of money to be made in fake.’
If there’s one thing Caleb needs, it’s cash. As a consequence of being scammed, the Depot is losing business contacts faster than the Sugdens lose sheep. As a last resort he ropes his employee Billy Fletcher into helping put the company back in the green. To his surprise, Billy is terrific with customers and drums up lucrative new contracts. However, according to William, this is just the start of Caleb’s descent into shady dealings.
‘It does kind of set things in motion, he realises they can make a bit of money from it. He’s probably dodging tax on it. He wants to maximise his profits. Another avenue does open up for him where he can do counterfeit but it another way. He does start going down that darker route. He loves it. He’s pursing it, rather than it pursuing him.’
‘He feels like he needs to get his edge back. He is always treading a fine line between paying things legitimately and going under the radar and doing things sneakily. It’s a big part of what makes him tick. Its just part of him. He loves that buzz.’
That ‘buzz’ probably won’t be shared by Jai, who is currently on holiday in Canada. When he returns, will Caleb be sharing his less-than-honest venture with his business partner? William Ash says absolutely not.
‘He thinks Jay is a pain in the backside! He brought him into the business in the first place to scam him. The whole thing with Laurel when they were going through their divorce. He views Jay as an irritant. Ordinarily he wouldn’t have chosen him as his second in command, but it’s just the way the chips have fallen. Whenever he’s doing everything dodgy, he tries to keep Jay out of it as much as he can. Jay is a thorn in his side because he plays by the rules a lot more than Caleb does when it comes to the business.’
Another person who will have something to say about Caleb turning to the dark side is Ruby. William explains why his character is so eager to keep his wife in the dark.
‘Caleb thinks ‘let’s keep it from her’. The less people know the better. Not for any reason other than that. He wants to protect her from it.’
‘Because he’s keeping the facts from Ruby that the company is under a lot of financial stress, he doesn’t want her know about how much in the balance their life is and the success of their life. It just opens a can of worms. So he keeps it from her as much as he can.’
Unfortunately for Caleb, he lives in Emmerdale, where a dozen secrets get exposed before breakfast. Will the crooked entrepreneur come unstuck, or will he become more immersed in criminality? William Ash hints at the future of his character’s descent into darkness.
‘He pursues this line of work that is pretty dodgy, really. He is getting himself deeper into that but making a lot of money from doing it. He recruits Kerry and Billy to help him do that, but people are going to find out. People will eventually suss what is going on.’
