Safia was a confederate of Todd Grimshaw and was involved with him in a scam to steal £1,000 from his psychotic gangster boyfriend Mick Chaney. He discovered the deception and put a price on Todd's head, forcing him to go into hiding. Needing money of her own, Safia posed as Todd to obtain more money by deception from his mother Eileen. Todd had disappeared from her life two years before and she remained concerned and desperate to hear from him. Safia wrote to Eileen, asking for another £1,000 but the letter was opened by lodger Mary Taylor as her landlady was away in Thailand visiting her other son, Jason. She elicited the assistance of Sean Tully and Billy Mayhew in deciding what to do, and Sean sent a text to "Todd" who asked that the money be left as a "dead drop" in Victoria Gardens.
The trio left a bag full of shredded paper in the required place and kept watch from nearby, though Sean went missing for a while and Mary fell asleep. They roused themselves enough to find Safia picking up the bag and subjected her to an interrogation in the gardens. She denied ever hearing from Todd but was caught out when Sean dialled his phone, only for it to ring out from Safia's pocket. She then claimed she had found it in a bag dumped by the canal and had written the letter after reading texts on it. She broke free and ran before she could give much more information.
Billy was concerned enough to begin missing persons enquiries about Todd which Eileen joined in with when she returned. The publicity brought Todd out of hiding when he realised that it would lead Mick to his mother and endanger her.