keith steer, played by tim dantay, and his accomplice charlie keating (nicholas tennant) persuades grant mitchell (ross kemp) to carry out a raid on a betting shop. however, when grant's wife sharon discovers what he is planning, she threatens him with divorce. grant persuades his brother phil (steve mcfadden) to do the robbery in his place. steer and keating are incompetent amateurs, and one shoots the other in the foot by mistake. when phil stops to help the injured keating, steer drives off and leaves them. the police spend the next week questioning the mitchell brothers about the robbery, but phil is given a false alibi by frank butcher (mike reid) and pete beale (peter dean), so he avoids arrest.