mike first appeared in charnham in november 2003, as a former flame of eileen day. eileen had enlisted his help in her plan to take revenge on pete callan for sleeping with her daughter lucy and later breaking lucy's heart by rejecting her. mike devised a plan for eileen to get hold of pete's assets by marrying him and then framing him for arson. mike set fire to the local cybercafe owned by roy farmer, one of pete's many enemies. the plan worked, but resulted in roy's death. eileen was left racked with guilt, but mike persuaded her not hand herself in. mike then began extorting money