Norman Leach

Norman Leech was a petty criminal who attempted to black mail Alf Roberts and assaulted Bet Lynch.

In 1973, shortly after becoming Mayor for the first time, Alf was involved in a minor road accident when he used a driveway to reverse. Although the lady involved was unharmed her son, Norman, threatened to go to the newspapers unless Alf paid out £500. When Bet Lynch, who had been present in the car when the incident occured, heard of this she confronted Leach and forced him to return the cheque. Bet had correctly assumed that Leach would have a criminal record and would suffer more from the police being involved than Alf.

Several months later Bet was mugged and her bag was stolen. The handbag was found, complete with the £25 Bet's pools syndicate had won, and a set of Normans fingerprints. In order to help Bet Alf decided to confess all to the police but was stopped from resigning from his position of Mayor when he learnt that Leech had, upon questioning, had confessed all. Leech was sent to jail for 7 years.