Fern Lindon was a devious woman who impersonated Bernie Winter in 2022.
Fern tracked Bernie down to 5 Coronation Street in August 2022 to reclaim an expensive blazer that Bernie had come into possession of after a shop assistant had inadvertently given it to her while she was picking up her grandson Joseph Brown's school uniform. Fern returned Bernie's purse, which she had accidentally left in the shop, in exchange for the blazer and during their interaction the pair sized each other up and realised that they were the spitting image of one another. Bernie later recounted the story to her daughter Gemma and Chesney Brown but when they refused to believe she'd met her doppelgänger, she vowed to track Fern down to prove that she was telling the truth.
It didn't take long for Bernie to reconnect with Fern as she turned up again due to the fact that she had accidentally taken the bag containing Joseph's uniform rather than her blazer. Fern wasted no time in propositioning Bernie to the tune of £200 to attend a speed awareness course in her place. Bernie initially refused as she wanted to stay on the straight and narrow but the following month she reached out to Fern and offered her services as she needed the cash. Fern provided Bernie with a list of her driving offences so that she could attend the course in her place. Bernie made out to her son Paul Foreman that she was heading for an interview but attended the speed awareness course instead. After successfully completing the course she returned Fern's ID and collected her payment.
Fern became aware that Bernie was applying for a job at a cleaning agency and warned her against working for them as the firm was said to be dodgy. Fern offered to help her check out other agencies and sent her away for a takeaway. Left alone at No.5, Fern rooted through Bernie's possessions and swiped one of her tops and a bank statement before fleeing the house. When Bernie returned home she was surprised to find Fern had gone but Gemma remained sceptical about her existence. Masquerading as Bernie, Fern attended a job interview at the cleaning agency and upon being hired, she was tasked with cleaning a jewellers. The next day, Fern asked Bernie to meet up privately at her place, ensuring that Bernie would have no alibi, and then when the manager went for his lunch break, she ransacked the place.
That night, Bernie was arrested on suspicion of theft and was stunned as she watched CCTV footage of Fern dressed in her clothes stealing from the shop. She realised now that Fern had set her up and that nobody else had ever met her to help prove her existence. Bernie attempted to tell police officer Jess Heywood about her attendance at the speed awareness course and she was released pending further investigation. Bernie's partner Dev Alahan assisted her in rummaging through the rubbish bins until they found the packaging from Fern's blazer which had her address on it but despite searching the streets, they were unable to locate her. Determined to play Fern at her own game, Bernie remembered that she was a member of the Ridgeley Park country club in Handforth and attended a spa session there pretending to be Fern. However, she was caught out by a man who turned out to be Fern's husband Howard when she attempted to access the computer records to find Fern's address.
Howard revealed that Fern had left him three months ago, taking the house and cleaning out his mother's bank account. Bernie offered to help Howard track Fern down but he refused as he wanted to forget about his wife. He later turned up at the Rovers and revealed that he had changed his mind. He explained that he got rid of all his photographs of Fern when they split up so that he couldn't prove they looked alike. Howard explained that he had come up with a plan to draw Fern out by pretending that he had won the lottery. The plan worked and Fern reached out to her husband hoping to reconcile. Bernie planned to confront Fern but was bundled into the back of a car by Dan, an old friend of hers from The Dog & Gun that had mistaken her for Fern who had also ripped him off, and the distraction caused her to miss Howard's initial meeting with Fern.
As the group planned to catch Fern once again, Chesney and Gemma worked out that Howard had changed allegiances when he correctly identified the amount the stolen jewellery was worth. They refused to let him go and forced him to make contact with Fern. Gemma, Chesney, Paul and Dan accompanied Howard to a car park where they awaited Fern's arrival. Fern turned up with the jewellery but almost immediately realised it was a trap and attempted to make her getaway when she was accosted by policeman Craig Tinker and his colleagues. With her name cleared, Bernie thanked Dev for being the only one never to have doubted her story.
List of appearances[]
2022