Rod Kempson was a builder who owned his own company, Kempson Developments, based in Wythenshawe. One of his projects was a conversion at Viola Court and its flat at No.5 that Nicola Rubinstein was interested in buying. She asked her father Pat Phelan to give it the once over and advise her if it was worth buying, but he advised her to offer £5,000 under the asking price as he had found some defects in the cheap windows that Kempson had put in. Nicola later reported back that the developer had rejected her offer, making her feel small when he almost laughed in her face.
Phelan asked to see Kempson at the Rovers for a drink where Rod recognised him as having recently been involved in a flats scam at Calcutta Street. Phelan brushed it off as the work of his former crooked partner and turned to the matter in question pointing out to Kempson that he had spotted that the exposed brickwork on the chimney breast was tiling and that the supposed real oak flooring in the bedroom was laminates. He pointed out to him that they were both part of the builders' magic circle, knew each other's tricks and suggested that Nicola's offer was a fair one. Kempson rang Nicola back to agree to her price and she thanked her father with genuine gratitude. Todd Grimshaw, with some knowledge of Phelan's usual crooked ways, pointed out to the builder that he didn't always have to do everything by an underhand method.