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Neighbourhood > Guest Character Profiles > Carl Banks Don Bridges

Carl Banks 1988
Occupation: Kitchen Hand

When new kitchen hand Carl came to work at Lassiter’s hotel, his employers were impressed with him. Paul Robinson was even considering awarding him ‘Employee of the Month’ until Mrs Mangel got to hear about it. She voiced her concerns that the man was not to be trusted, and other hotel staff admitted that they found him a bit creepy sometimes. Paul was used to Mrs Mangel’s gossiping, and didn’t take it too seriously. However, she later burst into the office, claiming that Carl was leaving work with some expensive foodstuffs. She told Paul that she had accused Carl of stealing and he had taken off. Paul was unsure, but he approached Carl in the staff car park for a chat. He noticed the bags and, remembering what Mrs Mangel had said, he asked to take a look inside. Paul was shocked to find that the kitchen hand had stolen lots of expensive food, and further investigation revealed that he’d been doing so for weeks. Paul was forced to take him back to the office, where Mrs Mangel was ready to gloat, and the police were contacted.

Carl immediately blamed Nell Mangel for his being uncovered as a thief, and he called round at her home, where she’d been hoovering and didn’t hear him come in. As she’d only recently recovered from a serious heart attack, Mrs Mangel realised that the shock could do her health further damage, but she was determined to get the man out of her house. He, however, told her that she was going to have to pay for what she’d done and he claimed that he would make it look like she'd had an accident, due to some "faulty wiring". Fortunately, at the time, Bronwyn Davies was lodging at number 32 and when she came in and saw the situation, she immediately came to the rescue by chasing Carl out of the house with an umbrella.

Notes: Don Bridges returned to Neighbours in 1994 as Barry Morgan and again in 1995, in the recurring role of Kev Rebecchi.

To read our interview with Don Bridges, click here

Biography by Steve

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