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Guest Character Profiles > Wade Fernsby Stephen Phillips

After various Ramsay Street residents started being targeted by hackers, Mackenzie Hargreaves started to become suspicious of her boyfriend Haz Devkar, eventually going through his bag and finding an external hard drive which seemed to suggested that he was the culprit. Haz then confessed to her that, before he'd moved to Erinsborough, he'd been doing a degree in IT and, along with some friends, had started a service helping people with their tech problems. This had developed into some hacking and deepfakes, and eventually the destruction of the life and business of a man named Wade Fernsby. Haz soon realised that they'd gone too far and left the group, destroying their tech gear in the process. With the hacker targeting Haz and his new life on Ramsay Street, he wanted to try and work it out for himself, convinced that it was revenge from his old friends and fearing that if the truth came out, he'd lose all of his new friends, just as his family had disowned him when they'd found out.

Mackenzie was uncomfortable with the whole thing, but agreed to give Haz a week to try and work out the identity of the hacker. When Haz let slip Wade's name one day, Mackenzie did some research of her own and found out that Haz and his friends had destroyed Wade's business, Fernsby Constructions, by creating fake emails, which seemed to show that the company was exploiting labour, then leaking them to the press. Mackenzie managed to track down Wade and arranged a meeting, where Wade arrived, explaining that his old business partner had employed Haz and his friends. He told her how they'd not only destroyed his business, but also created a deepfake video of his wife in a compromising position, causing her to lose her job and destroying most of his friendships. Mackenzie made sure not to mention that Haz was her boyfriend, but immediately felt sorry for Wade and turned on Haz, saying that she was struggling to be with someone who could do something like that. When Wade then got in touch and asked if he could see Mackenzie again, as it was nice to meet someone who believed him, she agreed to meet him, unaware that he was actually the hacker who was out for revenge.

When Mackenzie then met up with him, he listened as she told him about all of the people who'd been affected by the hacking, including Holly Hoyland, who'd had $20,000 taken from her bank account and Aaron Brennan, who'd been led to believe that he'd received a phone call from his dead husband, David. Secretly delighted about the chaos he'd been causing, Wade acted like he was disgusted and then managed to get Mackenzie to talk about herself and her dreams and aspirations. When she mentioned that she'd like to one day become a judge on the supreme court, Wade realised that he'd found a way to hurt her and set about making her the next target. With Mackenzie talking about the current strain on her relationship, Wade stuck the final nail in its coffin by claiming that the hackers had destroyed his friendship with his best friend, the only person who'd stuck by him, by sending him a deepfake video of Wade sexually assaulting a woman. This lie had the desired effect and Mackenzie confronted Haz, who denied any knowledge of that final video. A disgusted Mackenzie refused to believe him and ended the relationship, telling Haz that he needed to speak to the police and their friends who'd been targetted, or she would.

His guilt at an all-time high, Haz wrote letters to everyone who'd been affected by the hacking, and also one to Wade, apologising for everything. After getting Wade's number from Mackenzie, he handed over the letter in person, but was alarmed as it quickly became clear that Wade was the hacker. Wade gleefully told Haz about how he'd lied about the deepfake video that had been sent to his best friend, knowing that it was the final little nudge Mackenzie needed to break up with Haz. He said that he'd spent the last few years studying IT in order to get his revenge and that, now that Haz had nothing left to lose, he wanted him to join a start-up, hacking banks and other businesses. Haz insisted that all that was behind him and he'd never go back, but Wade then played him another deepfake clip, which appeared to be Mackenzie requesting bribes to help friend Terese get planning for her new business through council. With everyone on Ramsay Street now aware of what he'd done, Haz spoke to the police, who warned him that he might be facing jail time for his historical crimes. With practically everyone turning against him, and Mackenzie's future dreams under threat, Haz met with Wade and agreed to join his start-up.

As he began working for Wade at office space in Richmond, Haz was secretly in touch with the police, wearing a wire to try and catch out Wade and his illegal activities. When Wade briefly left the office, Sergeant Andrew Rodwell turned up, making sure that Haz was ok. He reminded Haz that they just needed Wade to send the deepfake that they were currently working on and take payment for it, then they'd have enough to arrest him. When Wade returned, he started to become suspicious as Haz constantly pushed him to complete the transaction, finally realising what was going on and fleeing the building. As Haz chased Wade down the stairs and out of the building, the police also jumped into action, but unfortunately Mackenzie had also worked out where Haz had disappeared to, noticing the Richmond address on some note paper that Wade had previously given her. As Haz chased Wade, he then ended up running straight into the path of Mackenzie, who was unable to stop in time and ran him over.

As Karl and Mackenzie helped Haz, the police caught up with Wade and he was arrested. As Haz had managed to get enough evidence of Wade's crimes to charge him, he was taken to the police station where he confessed to everything. With Haz in a coma in hospital, his friends were worried that he might never wake up, and Holly decided that she needed to speak to Wade. As he was being taken away to remand, Wade was confronted by Holly, who told him that what Haz had done to him was no justification for the way he'd tried to ruin her life by stealing her money, or Jane and Aaron's lives with the deepfakes.

During his time in prison, Wade befriended Felix Rodwell, Andrew's adoptive brother, whose criminal activities had seen him cut out of the family. When, a few months later, a brawl broke out in the prison gym, Felix stepped in to help Wade and ended up getting stabbed in the process. With both men in hospital recovering, Felix reported to Wade that he was being considered for early release after helping Wade and a couple of the prison guards during the brawl, unaware that Wade had been plotting revenge against Haz.

After seeing Wade with a burner phone that had been snuck in by a friend, then waking up one morning to hear him talking on it, mentioning a wedding and it being the last chance he would have for payback, Felix decided to tell Andrew. Surprised to find out that Felix was sharing a hospital room with Wade, Andrew quickly realised that it was Haz and Mackenzie's wedding that he was targeting, but after searching Wade's bed and questioning him, he couldn't get any proof. He decided not to tell Haz and Mackenzie and ruin their big day, but rather put in a subtle police presence around the wedding and reception. After being released, Felix decided to keep an eye on proceedings too and he spotted another ex-inmate, Bowser Jones, hanging around Haz's car. When Haz and Mackenzie left safely in a rental car, Felix tracked Andrew down and told him what he'd seen, but when they went to the car park, they found that Haz's car had been taken by someone in the wedding party and quickly noticed brake fluid on the ground, realising that the brakes had been cut and someone was in a lot of danger. After Andrew received reports of a car crashing nearby, he and Felix raced to the scene and found Terese Willis unconscious behind the wheel. Bowser was then also found before he could do any further damage, with Andrew reporting that he could be facing up to 15 years back behind bars for his actions.

Trivia Notes
• Stephen Phillips previously appeared in 2003 as Cameron Hodder
• Wade was incorrectly credited as Zach Fernsby when he first appeared in episode 9026, and this was corrected to Wade Fernsby from episode 9031 onwards

Episodes Featured
9026, 9027, 9028, 9030, 9031, 9035, 9036, 9108, 9112, 9113