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Guest Character Profiles > Justin Ashton Richard Sutherland

After arriving in Erinsborough intent on carrying through a plan to embezzle the Sinclair family for millions of dollars, Tess Carmichael met with 'troubleshooter' Justin Ashton, tasking him with dealing with a property called Warrawee that needed to have its tenants cleared out and made to look like the business was failing and needed to be sold. After a couple of meetings with Justin, who hoped that this might be the beginning of him regularly working for her, Tess put him on a flight to the outback to do her dirty work, planning to skim money off the sale and put it towards a fund with her 2IC Heath Royce to make a fresh start together, away from the Sinclairs.

Soon after, Tess sent her 2IC, and partner in both life and crime, Heath Royce, out to Warrawee to check that the staff were gone and that there was no paperwork or evidence left behind to show that they'd made it look like the business was failing, in order to sell it and skim money off the top. As Heath headed to the outback with secret other woman Holly, Toadie Rebecchi was annoyed to learn that his co-worker, and Holly's friend, Mackenzie, had been threatened by Heath to keep out of his business. Toadie, accompanied by Melanie Pearson, went to the house that Heath and Tess had been renting and, finding the door open, started snooping, finding fake passports and bank statements showing over $9 million in an account. They were interrupted by Justin, who dealt with the situation by kidnapping Toadie and Melanie and putting them on a train to the outback, leaving them in a cottage on the sprawling Warrawee Cattle Station for Heath to deal with.

As Heath then started to unravel, he was unable to stop Melanie and Toadie from escaping, whilst Holly finally realised that Heath was dangerous and tried to escape too. As Heath, wielding a gun, tried to track Holly down in bushland, she ended up pushing him into a river where he was attacked and killed by a crocodile. Back in Erinsborough, Holly's actions were seen as self-defence and she was told that she wouldn't face any criminal charges, and, having found a Lassiters Hotel access card in Heath's bag, she decided to use it and found a huge sum of cash hidden in his locker. She started spending, believing that it was compensation for everything she'd been through and, when her dad and stepmother, Karl and Susan, grew worried about her extravagant spending, she claimed that she'd sold a necklace that Heath had given her. When neighbour Wendy Rodwell caught Holly sneaking some cash out of Karl's greenhouse - where she'd been hiding it after a locker audit at the hotel - she urged her to go to the police. Backed into a corner, Holly decided to hand in just $10,000 of the money to Wendy's husband, Sergeant Andrew Rodwell, claiming that it was all she'd found and asking the Rodwells to keep it from Karl and Susan, claiming that she was ashamed of her behaviour.

When Holly then spent $50,000 on a car, her friends and family were worried about her getting into debt, while Holly had bigger things to worry about when she started receiving anonymous texts demanding the money back. After working out that Justin was responsible, she told him that she'd given him his money, but after realising that the last of the cash had been accidentally thrown away when Karl and Susan were cleaning up the back garden, she then attempted to sell her car. As Wendy worked out that Holly had used more of the stolen cash to buy the car, she decided to tell Susan what had been going on and, later that night, Susan joined Holly when she went for a drink at the Waterhole, hoping that she could bring up the situation, and they were also joined by Paul Robinson. Unfortunately, as they all arrived, Holly noticed Justin had also walked in and she told him that she'd get the money to him once she'd sold her car. He refused to leave without it, but as he manhandled Holly, barman Aaron Brennan stepped in and punched Justin, at which point a gun was pulled and Justin warned Holly, Susan, Aaron and Paul that he wasn't leaving without his cash.

As Paul tried to calm Justin down, offering to help him get any money he needed, he ended up being thrown to the ground, while Holly was hit across the face when she later tried to jump to Paul's defence. When Felix Rodwell spotted an opportunity to help, he snuck into the staff entrance and through into the bar, managing to get a call to his brother, police sergeant Andrew, allowing the police to hear what was going on. As Felix revealed his presence, claiming that he was a kitchen hand who'd been hiding, the distraction allowed Aaron to escape. As Justin told Felix to sit with the others, he was furious as he noticed that Aaron had gone and he forced Holly to tape everyone's hands together. Having learnt that there was no money left, and with debts of his own to pay, an increasingly desperate Justin tried to work out his next step, only becoming more angry when Holly mentioned his son, having heard from Melanie that he'd been talking to him during her and Toadie's kidnapping. Just as he was about to Susan for a toilet break, a furious Justin realised that bar manager Wendy and her friend Quinn had been hiding out in the office and, as he became increasingly angry and threatened to shoot Susan, Felix saw his chance and managed to push Justin to the ground and disarm him, allowing the police to get in and get the hostages to safety.

Trivia Notes
• Richard Sutherland previously appeared in 2014 as Victor Cleary

Episodes Featured
9088, 9096, 9118, 9119

Biography by Steve

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