The Community Payback Supervisor was in charge of Beth Sutherland when she had to carry out some of her sentence of community service after being found guilty of bigamy in September 2016. A month later, she was ordered to present herself at the Red Rec with others, picking up litter.
The problem for Beth was that the revelation of her bigamy had caused a breach between her and her son, Craig Tinker. He was due in court at the same time to give evidence at the trial of Clayton Hibbs for the murder of Kylie Platt and, desperate to get on his right side, Beth wanted to be in the court to give him moral support. Mary Taylor rushed her to Weatherfield Crown Court and sympathised with her as the time to leave to carry out her service drew near. Mary had a plan: they two would swap outer clothing and Mary, wearing Beth's high-viz orange tabard, would pretend to be her and perform her duties. A problem arose when the supervisor wanted "Beth" to sign her worksheet and Mary dived into the toilets to avoid her face being seen and the deception discovered. Through the locked cubicle door, Mary was told that unless the sheet was signed in the next half-hour the session would not be counted. She frantically texted Beth at the court who high-tailed it bato the park, swapped clothes back and signed the sheet for the suspicious supervisor, as Mary desperately squeezed through the toilet window at the back to avoid being seen.