When Les Battersby was sentenced to six months at Strangeways Jail in 2003 for assaulting PC Mick Hopwood, a charge for which he was entirely innocent, he swore revenge on Mick and fellow copper Emma Watts who had backed up his false testimony in court. Hearing that Emma and Curly had plans to move to Newcastle, Les thought he had lost his chance of getting even but fellow inmate Arnie Scanlan, who was being released, offered to try and help delay the sale after Les had turned down his offer to personally settle the score with Emma.
Arnie turned up at 7 Coronation Street posing as Mr. Poole, a potential purchaser of the house. He offered Curly £500 over the asking price on the condition that it was taken off the market immediately, claiming he had been gazumped previously and needed the house for his pregnant daughter. The offer was gratefully accepted and Arnie then span out the "deal" as long as he could. After a few days, a surveyor turned up to look over the house but he was another con, burglar Sean Wakefield who was paid £100 by Kirk Sutherland to carry out the task. He momentarily lost his nerve in the presence of policewoman Watts and later told Arnie that if he had been casing the house for a future burglary, he wouldn’t have found anything valuable to steal anyway. The plan fell down when Arnie was seen coming out of No. 7, where he had supposedly been measuring up, and was spotted by Mick who knew him as a burglar on parole who had been in prison with Les.