Kellet Holdings

Kellet Holdings was a Weatherfield-based property company owned by Richard Hillman.

History
Much of the business was explored and apparently operational when Richard, a financial advisor and self-made businessman, first arrived on the street in June 2001 at the funeral of his alleged cousin Alma Halliwell.

It soon turns out that Richard is actually a high-class fraudster who specializes Kellet Holdings with buy-back mortgages; he would convince elderly people to give their homes to him for a large sum of money and would allow them to live there rent free until they died, after which Kellet Holdings would own the property. It later transpired that several elderly people had lost their life savings to Hillman's dodgy dealings in his representation of Kellet Holdings.

In November 2001, Richard's relationship with his soon-to-be third wife Gail Platt continued when her longtime friend Emily Bishop requested that Richard give her financial advise so that she could help her nephew Spider Nugent set up his business. Richard later visited Emily and convinced her into signing up to an equity release scheme, whereby she would be given a sum of money for her house but would be allowed to live in it until she died - after which the property would belong to Richard.

When Emily's lodger Norris Cole learns about the deal she made with Richard, he quickly suspected that Richard is not who he seems and begins to pry onto Richard and his company's dodgy dealings whilst trying unsuccessfully to warn Emily about Richard's ulterior motives.

In December 2001, Richard grows unnerved when his acquaintance Tony Lawson turns up to confront him regarding the latter's late mother Mrs. Lawson - who was one of Richard's old clients. Prior to Richard's arrival on the street, he had manipulated Mrs. Lawson into signing over her house The Ridings to him just before she died; her family were left with nothing and Tony Lawson suspected that Richard had conned her with his dodgy dealings.

In May 2002, three months after Richard left his business partner Duggie Ferguson for dead after the latter's fatal accident at The Ridings, Richard's second ex-wife Patricia Hillman turned up just as he was finalizing his wedding plans with Gail. It turns out that Patricia is Kellet Holdings' co-director who owns 20% of the company, which Richard later convinces her to relinquish in exchange for £25,000.

However, after Richard ends up stalling Patricia, she suspected that he was planning to swindle her just like he would do to the elderly people and began to confront him about it. They later had a confrontation about it and Richard ends up killing Patricia before covering up her murder.

Following the events of Patricia's murder, Richard married Gail and later took her in as Patricia's replacement in co-managing Kellet Holdings. Thereafter Richard ended up undergoing a major financial crisis due to the council planning to build a bail hostel in the same road as The Ridings, which would effectively undo Richard's profitable ways altogether.

When Richard was later forced to visit his bank manager Keith Greenacre over his financial situation, he falsely claimed that Kellet Holdings was preparing a substantial contract worth at least five figures sum that would solve his problems.

Richard later planned to kill Emily in order to put his equity release scheme with her house into fruition, after his earlier plot to kill Gail's mother Audrey Roberts for her £250,000 inheritance had failed. He originally tried to smother Emily with a pillow on Christmas 2002, but was forced to back down when Emily's friend Rita Fairclough arrived and nearly walked in on the discovery.

Having failed to kill Emily the first time, Richard resolved to murder her in January 2003 and implicate his stepdaughter's ex-boyfriend Aidan Critchley as the culprit. Richard disguised himself as Aidan after drugging him, then broke into 3 Coronation Street where Emily was babysitting Joshua Peacock for the latter's parents. Richard wacked Emily on the head with a crowbar, shortly before Joshua's mother Maxine Peacock unexpectedly walked in on the incident. Left with no other choice, Richard was forced to kill Maxine before she could react; although Maxine died, Emily had survived the attack.

A few days after Maxine's murder, Richard learned that one of his elderly clients had died two weeks earlier and he stood to receive £23,000 through the equity release scheme. Furthermore, the plans for the bail hostel had also fallen through and as a result the flats he owned began to sell at the full asking price. Richard was consequently guilt-ridden, as he realized that there had been no need for him to harm Emily or Maxine in the first place.

In February 2003, Gail's suspicions about Richard ultimately leads to him confessing his crimes. Gail thereupon learns about the extent of how Richard operates his business dealings with Kellet Holdings. A week later after Richard goes on the run and his murders become public knowledge, it is revealed that Kellet Holdings is actually non-existent; Richard had merely set up the company as name only just to make a living for himself.

In March 2003, Gail learns the truth about Kellet Holdings when the police begin investigating her supposed involvement with the company's dealings. Since Richard had made Gail a company director of Kellet Holdings during his reign of homicide, Gail has ended up being implicated to have conspired with awareness of Richard's malpractice. Later on, Richard planned to kill Gail and her children by driving them into the canal; Gail and her family survived whereas Richard died.

Before Richard's death, he wrote a letter for the police to discover his confession of his dodgy dealings and that Gail was never involved in anything to do with Kellet Holdings. This clears Gail of suspicion regarding Kellet Holdings, although it doesn't stop her being hassled by her neighbour Vera Duckworth. Earlier on Richard had conned £20,000 from Vera and her husband Jack Duckworth in an investment scam by convincing them to sign over the cheque to him rather than Kellet Holdings itself. Because of this, Vera and Jack ended up losing their life savings thanks to Richard's investment scam.

Around the same time after Richard's funeral, Gail learned that both she and Emily could potentially lose their homes as a result of Richard's scheme. But because Gail was the director of Kellet Holdings after Richard's death, she gave the house back to Emily whilst also managing to avoid a mortgage crisis with Audrey's help.

Since then, Kellet Holdings has never been mentioned again.

Trivia

 * It is unknown when Kellet Holdings was first established and happened since after Richard's death.