Coronation Street’s Sally Metcalfe looks set to be freed from prison in the new year.
The Weatherfield busybody – played by Sally Dynevor – has been banged up for four years for fraud, money laundering and bribery, which has sparked a national outcry, and while she will be behind bars for Christmas, her husband Tim Metcalfe (Joe Duttine) will turn detective to clear her name.
A source said: "Tim rumbles Duncan’s plan and manages to clear Sally’s name."
Tim is set to rumble calculated conman Duncan Radfield (Nicholas Gleaves), revealing he was behind a £40,000 scam which has seen Sally sent to prison.
The cabbie discovers dodgy Duncan’s wife May is living in Costa Rica, despite claims she was dead, and that Dunc has conned Sally into giving him the council’s cash so he can send it to her in the Central American country.
This has led to comparisons to a real-life situation in which former prison officer John Darwin faked his own death.
He was thought to have passed away in a canoeing accident in 2002, but he turned up alive in December 2007.
Darwin had faked his death so his wife Anne could make fraudulent insurance and pension claims.
A source added to The Sun’s Bizarre TV column: "Corrie’s writers seem to have read up on John Darwin and written a similar story for the soap.
"Just like John’s fake death and eventual appearance in Panama, Duncan’s wife May ends up in somewhat similar circumstances."
After Darwin was discovered alive, it was later revealed he had been living next door to his wife, Anne, with a new identity in a house linked by a secret passageway.
The couple’s sons Mark and Anthony were none the wiser about the scam and publicly disowned their parents after finding out their father was alive.
Darwin admitted eight deception charges against him, and Anne was found guilty of six charges of obtaining property and money transfers by deception and nine of money laundering.
Coronation Street’s Sally Metcalfe ‘to be freed from prison’
