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Guest Character Profiles > Tim Collins Ben Anderson

Tim Collins 2001-2005, 2007-2008
Occupation: Lawyer

When Toadie Rebecchi began working for the legal company Stewart, Whitehead and Moore while studying for his law degree, he came across Tim Collins. Tim was a typical ruthless lawyer, out to make as much money as he could, regardless of who he stepped on along the way. However, when Toadie found out that an insurance company, Reinholt, with which some of his neighbours were clients, was about to go bust, he was faced with the dilemma of breaking Tim’s confidence or warning his friends before they lost a lot of money. Realising that this could make Joe Scully bankrupt, he told his neighbour and faced the consequences. Toadie was quickly warned that by double-crossing Stewart, Whitehead and Moore, he wouldn’t be able to find work as a lawyer anywhere in the city.

Tim kept in contact with the residents of Ramsay Street, acting as best man at his cousin, Marc Lambert’s, wedding to Stephanie Scully and, later that year, as Susan Kennedy’s lawyer when she planned to divorce Karl. Later, when Tim left Stewart, Whitehead and Moore, he asked Toadie to join him at his new firm. Although he had no office, and spent much of his time working out of The Coffee Shop, Toadie agreed to join Tim Collins & Associates. Despite the huge differences in their working styles, and particularly, their ethics, Tim and Toadie made a good team. When it seemed that elderly Rose Belker was being conned by her son-in-law, Toadie agreed to help her, despite Tim’s concerns that the woman had no money and would be unable to pay her fees. Tim was soon left feeling embarrassed when, after exposing her cruel son-in-law, Rose offered the boys their money, plus some extra for being so helpful. They were joined at the law firm in 2003 by Sindi Watts as their secretary, but she quit after only a few weeks and was replaced by David Bishop. A few months later, they lost their premises and were forced to share a unit at Lassiter’s with Karl’s medical practice.

After spending a great deal of time in Sydney, and leaving Toadie to do a lot of the day-to-day running of the law practice, Tim became involved in another case involving the residents of Ramsay Street. After Susan Kennedy sacked her lawyer during her divorce from Karl, she decided that she would hire the most ruthless man she knew – Tim. He was only too glad to accept the case and began to convince Susan that she had to fight for what was rightfully hers, especially as Karl’s new girlfriend Izzy would be busy trying to get her hands on it. When mediation between the two parties failed, the case went to court. However, Tim was suddenly called to Sydney, following important developments in another case, and so old family friend Toadie was called in to take over as Susan’s representation.

A few months later, Tim and his girlfriend, Molly Milevic, had a night out with Toadie and his new woman, Genevieve Doyle. Although Molly had a wonderful time, enjoying Eva’s stories about her teaching and wrestling, Tim was less impressed. He told Toadie that she didn’t present the correct image for the partner of a lawyer and that he should think about dumping her. However, the following day, at the grand re-opening of the Lassiter’s complex, Eva was hired to sing at The Scarlet Bar and she managed to wow the crowds, including Tim. He was forced to apologise for his earlier remarks, realising that he shouldn’t have judged that particular book by its cover.

Over the months that followed, Tim was increasingly absent, tending to cases at the Sydney office and leaving Toadie and new article clerk Rosetta Cammeniti to run things in Melbourne. In mid-2007, Tim returned to take charge of his Melbourne office, pointing out to Toadie and Rosie that, between them, they billed less hours than one of his Sydney lawyers. Unimpressed to find Toadie in court on a drink driving charge, and Rosie battling her own personal problems, Tim gave them an ultimatum - he explained that he was freezing both of their salaries for a month and, whoever billed the most hours in that time would get both pay packets, while the loser would be out of a job. While Rosie quickly threw herself into the challenge, Toadie struggled to keep up, particularly as his older brother, Stonie turned up and quickly clashed with Tim. When local man Ian Morecombe tripped and hurt his ankle outside a small deli, Tim encouraged him to sue the business for every penny they had, despite Toadie's concerns that they would be taking away someone's livelihood. As Tim got Ian to sign some forms, he realised that his Swiss pen, a gift from his father worth over $1000, was missing, and immediately accused Stonie, who'd been hanging around the office, of theft. Even Toadie started to doubt his brother, so when Tim later found it in his briefcase, Stonie was expecting a couple of apologies but only got one, from his sibling, before being thrown out of the office again.

Over the days that followed, it became clear that Tim had no intention of keeping Toadie on, seeing Rosie as a far better prospect. He explained to Rosie that he could picture her in their city office, with the corner suite, within no time, if she stuck with him. Rosie was flattered by this, but said that she couldn't betray Toadie like that, and would rather win the job on her own merits. However, when her husband Frazer later mistakenly thought that he'd caught Toadie smoking pot and throwing the butts into their garden, when in fact it was Stonie with the addiction, he phoned Rosie and told her that her loyalty to Toadie was misplaced, and that she should accept Tim's offer to advance her career. But it wasn't long before Frazer realised his mistake, as he caught Stonie throwing his butts over the fence, and let Rosie know. She quickly changed her tune, even altering the billed hours so that she and Toadie were equal, and he'd have no choice but to keep them both on. When an over-worked Toadie then suffered a panic attack and was hospitalised, Tim's lack of compassion, not to mention catching him napping and listening to his iPod when he was supposed to be working, made Rosie realise that perhaps he wasn't worth all the effort. The incident had a similar effect on Toadie, as they both came to the conclusion that they'd be better off working for themselves than busting a gut for a worm like Tim, and announced that they were opening their own law firm, Rebecchi Cammeniti, and since Tim's lease was up soon and they were friends with the owners of Lassiter's, it looked likely that they'd be taking over his premises too.

Forced to run the Erinsborough office on his own, Tim was frustrated by Toadie constantly popping in and out to measure for new furniture, but soon saw an opportunity to get his own back when he met new client Kirsten Gannon. Kirsten was preparing to fight for custody of her young son, Mickey but had little funds and Tim was about to show her the door when he realised that Mickey's father was Ned Parker, a good friend of Toadie's, he realised who would be representing Kirsten's opposition and saw the chance to beat Rebecchi Cammeniti with their first case. When he found out that Ned had forgotten about Mickey's birthday, Tim encouraged Kirsten and Mickey not to say anything, letting Mickey think that his dad must have a big surprise planned. He then attempted to win over Lassiter's managers Elle Robinson and Oliver Barnes only for them to tell him of a massive rent increase, before admitting that they actually had no intention of letting his stay and would need him to vacate the offices within 48 hours. Even more anxious for Kirsten to win the custody battle, Tim then encouraged her to use the short temper of Janae, Ned's girlfriend, to her advantage. After meeting Janae in the General Store, Kirsten easily managed to wind her up, making digs about her relationship with Ned and her criminal family, and Janae threw a glass of water over her. With an assessment with the family court psychologist due the next day, Janae's stunt looked like ruining Ned's chances of winning temporary custody, and Tim was happy to turn down a request from Toadie - and Diana Murray, a top barrister who was temporarily filling in for Rosie - to delay the psychological assessment.

After her morning meeting with Paula Beeman, the psychologist, Kirsten met with Tim and thanked him for his help, believing that it had gone well and she would be recommended for custody. As they chatted, Kirsten misread the signals and tried to kiss Tim and, as he rejected her, she ran off, embarrassed. Later that day, Diana phoned Tim and called him to Rebecchi Cammeniti, where he was informed that, after learning that Paula was going to recommend Ned for custody, Kirsten had snatched Mickey and run off. Tim agreed to phone her and try to talk some sense into her, but Kirsten had already decided that the whole thing was hopeless and that she and Mickey would have to get as far from Erinsborough as possible. After realising that Kirsten had vanished with Mickey, Toadie and Diana called upon Tim to help track her down, and he quietly admitted that his reaction to the kiss might have contributed to her snatching her son. He quickly called Kirsten, but she refused to change her mind about leaving, and it was down to Ned to find his son, just as Kirsten was about to take him away on a bus to Brisbane.

Tim then turned the lives of more Erinsborough residents upside-down when he turned up at the funeral of Alan Napier to deliver news to his grandson, Oliver, that his adoptive brother, Sebastian was contesting his rights to ownership of their late parents' hotel empire. After Oliver had won control of the Barnes empire, it had emerged that he was adopted, and Sebastian had decided that he wanted it back, and, with Tim acting as his lawyer, he managed to get Oliver's assets frozen. Oliver decided to try and sell everything before Sebastian could get his hands on it, but Diana and Toadie warned him that it wouldn't be possible, as those assets were already part of the legal action. Unfortunately, Oliver's real mother, Rebecca Napier, who had just started work at the law firm, sent the wrong documents to Tim, who found out about Oliver's plan to sell up, leaving him in a precarious legal position and Rebecca with no choice but to resign. A few days later, Oliver arranged to meet with Tim, who explained that Sebastian was willing to offer him $100,000 as a settlement, if he just walked away from the business. Oliver accepted, but later made it clear to Toadie that he wasn't going to let it end there.

Sebastian continued to use Tim to do his bidding when he sent the lawyer to Lassiter's to speak to Elle, and explained that, in order to cut costs, one of the three hotel managers would have to be fired, leaving Elle to sack either Oliver or Paul. Realising that the pair made an excellent team, with Oliver providing the heart and Paul the business sense, Elle met with Tim and proposed some other plans to cut spending around the hotel, but Tim said that all Sebastian wanted was to lose a manager, leaving Elle to realise that the proposal was a personal attempt on Sebastian's part to get revenge. After thinking things over and discussing it with Rebecca, Elle then shocked everyone by calling a board meeting and offering her resignation.

A few months later, as 26 Ramsay Street went to auction, the Parker family - who were renting the house and hoped to buy it - were shocked when Tim turned up for an inspection. After taking a quick look around, he announced that it was just what he was looking for, but he had no plans to live in the house, rather he was going to knock it down and use the land to build three townhouses. The Parkers weren't to be deterred and, having put off most other prospective buyers, it was down to Steve Parker, Tim and Rosie's sister, Carmella who hoped to buy it with her partner Marco Silvani. As the bids rose steadily, it looked like Tim was going to win the day, until Steve stepped back into the race at the last minute, buying the house for $600,000 - $80,000 over his limit.

Trivia Notes
• Tim and Marc Lambert are cousins. Tim was Marc's best man at his wedding to Steph Scully
• Tim was given a solid gold, Swiss made pen worth $A1000 by his father when he reached his first 100 hour billing week

Biography by Steve