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Guest Character Profiles > Simon Burns Sam Lee

Simon Burns 2005-2007
Occupation: Lassiter's Hotel Receptionist

Lassiter’s receptionist Simon Burns was working on the front desk when hotel owner Paul Robinson’s daughter, Elle, arrived from Tasmania. Having spent the evening getting to know a few of the local men – brothers Ned and Stuart Parker, Toadie Rebecchi and Connor O’Neill – she immediately asked for the penthouse suite. Not realising who she was, Simon was rude and dismissive, so she took him to one side and told him exactly who he was dealing with. The boys, not knowing she was related to Paul, were impressed and the five of them spent the night partying and drinking champagne. Simon had to call Paul in the next morning when Elle and her new friends set off the smoke alarm in the suite, but, before Simon could explain everything, Paul was shocked to be confronted by his daughter.

The following year, Simon was forced to pander to the needs of another of Paul’s children, Elle’s brother, Cameron. While Cameron was on a date with nurse Katya Kinski at the Scarlet Bar, Simon came in and, in an unnecessarily loud voice, asked if he still wanted the penthouse suite for later that night, as they had another interested party. Katya overheard and walked out on the date, but little did she, or Simon, realise that Cameron was actually his identical twin, Robert, who – along with being obsessed with destroying his father – was a lot less sexually experienced than his brother and struggling to keep up the pretence with Katya.

Later that year, Simon met Katya again, but it seemed that he had forgotten their earlier encounter. By then, Katya was dating Ned Parker and the pair, both closet fans, were shocked to learn that the Backstreet Boys were staying in Lassiter's' Penthouse Suite. After putting on suits and oversized sunglasses, the pair then faked American accents, with Katya pretending to be the band's PR manager and Ned one of the group, they tried to convince Simon that they'd left their security passes up in the room, and, as he went to check their details, they snuck into the hotel, making it to the suite, and managing to steal a pen and a sock, before being thrown out by security. Weeks later, there was more drama in reception when pregnant Sky Mangel arrived, desperately looking for Stingray Timmins, the father of the baby. When Sky pretended to be in pain, Simon reluctantly gave her the room number for 'Mr Timmins' unaware that it was the wrong Mr Timmins - Sky's ex-boyfriend, Dylan, who was in there enjoying a secret tryst with Elle. The shock of seeing Dylan and Elle together then caused Sky to go into premature labour.

A few weeks later, Paul was showing Lassiter's' new business trainee Rosetta Cammeniti around the complex, when the pair became locked in the wine cellar, as the door code had been changed and nobody had informed Paul. As it started to look like they wouldn't be found all night, the pair drank a bottle of wine together and the sexual tension eventually led to them kissing. However, before it could go any further, they were interrupted by Simon, who was stunned to walk in on them, as Paul angrily grabbed his coat and walked out, warning Simon that they needed to re-evaluate their security measures. Some weeks after that incident, Paul was busy pursuing Rosie, but found himself competing for her affections with her housemate, Frazer Yeats. As Frazer and Rosie prepared for a date at Lassiter's restaurant, Paul enlisted the help of Simon and the other Lassiter's staff to make their meal as difficult as possible by playing loud music and insulting Frazer's menu choices. Their date was topped off with Simon "accidentally" spilling wine into Frazer's lap and the news that his credit card had been rejected, meaning that he and Rosie had to wash dishes to pay for it.

Only months later, things were turned on their head for Paul, and the staff of Lassiter's, when Elle, furious at her father for interfering in her life, managed to con him out of his business. With the help of Oliver Barnes, heir to the Barnes family hotel fortune, Elle convinced her father that she and Oliver were getting married. Delighted at the thought of the Robinson and Barnes families uniting, Paul fell for the plan, hook, line and sinker. Believing that it was part of a plan to con Janelle Timmins out of her shares in Lassiter's, Paul signed everything over to Oliver, only to learn, in front of everyone at the engagement party, that he'd been taken for a ride and had lost everything. In the days that followed, Paul repeatedly found himself being thrown off hotel grounds by staff members, including Simon, under the orders of Mr Barnes and Miss Robinson. The following week, Simon was on hand again when an irate Karl Kennedy spotted Tom Scully heading up to his room. Concerned that Tom had his wife, Susan staying with him, Karl confronted Simon for this information, but the reception repeatedly told Karl that he was unable to give out that sort of information.

Some months later, Paul's latest girlfriend Rebecca Napier was determined to pay her way, having moved into the Robinson house along with her teenage son Declan. Though Elle suggested a job as head of housekeeping, Rebecca wasn't sure that she was management material, preferring to start off in something more menial, so Elle offered her waitressing work. However, she quickly felt unsettled when, on her first day, she overheard some of the staff, including Simon and a couple of the receptionists, laughing about how Paul's latest conquest had managed to "sleep her way to the bottom".

Episodes Featured
4811, 4948, 5066, 5086, 5114, 5128, 5199, 5207, 5299

Biography by Steve

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