Thomas "Tom" Hughes was a lad drinking in the Rovers, with his mate Rick, who upset Izzy Armstrong when he ignored her requests to let her past in her wheelchair and when she knocked into him by accident, shocked the regulars by calling her a “chippy cripple”. Gary Windass, along with his army mate Quinny, rushed to her defence and it looked as though a fight was about to break out when Liz McDonald threw the two newcomers out.
At the end of the night, Gary and Quinny exited the pub, only to find Tom and Rick waiting for them. Unwilling to believe that they were taking on squaddies, a fight broke out in which Tom was knocked unconscious. Kirk Sutherland advised Gary and Quinny to run for it while he attended to the lad on the ground.
- Credited as "Tom", the character's full name was given in dialogue in Episode 7425 (16th September 2010).