Vinny Ashford

Evil-doer
Full Name	Harvey McArdle
Alias	Vinny Ashford Bruce McArdle Vinny Harvey
Origin	Coronation Street
Occupation	Illegitimate Businessman Cohort of Pat Phelan (formerly)
Powers / Skills	High Intelligence Manipulation Intimidation
Hobby	Taking advantage of his nefariousness. Scheming with Phelan to profit their scam operation by conning the residents of Weatherfield.
Goals	To complete his con-artistic building project with Pat Phelan (succeeded). To persuade Andy Carver in revolting against Pat Phelan to prevent him from killing them both (failed).
Crimes	Fraud Conning
Type of Villain	Charismatic Criminal

Harvey "Bruce" McArdle, more commonly known as Vinny Ashford, is a fictional character of the British soap opera show Coronation Street. He served as a secondary antagonist in the 2016 series and a minor character in the 2017 series.

He was portrayed by Ian Kelsey.

History

Vinny first arrived in Weatherfield on August 2016 to tell his cohort Pat Phelan about his flat development plan and find out whether he was interested in investing. Later that day the pair met at Rovers to discuss the financial aspects of the project. Phelan assured Vinny that he would be able to get his hands on money but it would take some time - in reality, Phelan's plan was to get Eileen Grimshaw to agree to invest £65,000 of her son Jason's money in the scheme. Vinny then revealed the truth: the flats weren't actually going to be built and his plan was just an attempt to con people out of the money they would be putting up front for deposits. Following this admittance, Phelan agreed to help Vinny put his scheme into practice.

Later in the month, Vinny called round at 11 Coronation Street unannounced - on the same day that Eileen was due back from visiting Jason in Thailand. After Phelan tried to stall once more, Vinny eventually realized that the investment capital was not actually his own money in the first place and warned Phelan that the clock was ticking since there were plenty of others lined up to invest. However, it turned out that Jason had looked over the details and decided to invest his £65,000 in the development, and while at the Rovers, Phelan phoned Vinny to confirm that it was now "all systems go" and told him that he would get the money as soon as it had cleared through the bank. By November 2016, Vinny took the opportunity to flee without Phelan once the scam was completed.

Nearly a year later, Vinny would later returned after Phelan blackmailed him in meeting him under the threat of harming his mother Flora. Though he reluctantly obliged, Vinny was subsequently taken hostage by Phelan and - having failed to have him killed earlier on - is consequently killed by fellow prisoner Andy Carver; who was manipulated by Phelan into executing Vinny under the belief that he killed his father figure Michael Rodwell, whom Phelan himself committed on the day before Vinny betrayed him as the duo were previously bitter rivals. Ironically, Phelan would shortly afterwards execute Andy to eliminate all loose ends. Both their bodies were subsequently dumped in a pond on a disused site.

Several months after Vinny and Andy were killed, Phelan attempted to hide their bodies when building work began on the site. Gary Windass and Seb Franklin uncovered the bodies after being suspicious, which was one of the contributing factors to Phelan's downfall as he tried to evade the authorities. Vinny and Andy's deaths were avenged after Phelan was killed by his rival Anna Windass.