During the character's second stint, he was named one of the best soap villains of all time and in the programme itself;[2] alongside the likes of Alan Bradley (Mark Eden) and Richard Hillman (Brian Capron).

After getting Owen to sign a contract that releases him and Gary from their duties, Phelan hands over the disc containing CCTV evidence of his assault before leaving the house — though not before he declares victory against the family, sarcastically telling them "It's been a pleasure".

Needing to acquire a building so he can pull forward with extra affordable housing, Phelan manipulates café worker Alex Warner (Liam Bairstow) into using his film club for Calcutta Street's redevelopment — an act which secures Sally's consent when she promises to speak to the committee on his behalf.

In November 2016, Michael grows concerned over the "Calcutta Street" development and concludes that Phelan has been defrauding the residents of Weatherfield over the last few months — with him and Vinny seizing all the cash deposits from several victims, including Gary's girlfriend Sarah Platt (Tina O'Brien); Jenny's foster mother Rita Tanner (Barbara Knox); and Zeedan's grandmother Yasmeen Nazir (Shelley King) for themselves.

Michael's theory grows as Phelan attempts to con Yasmeen's ex-husband Sharif (Marc Anwar) and later Alex himself, though the latter is spared when his aunt Cathy Matthews (Melanie Hill) acquires him a flat that isn't amongst the "Calcutta Street" apartments.

After preventing his friend Freddie Smith (Derek Griffiths) from getting conned by the duo in a poker game, Michael seeks Anna's help in exposing Vinny's scam so Phelan can be brought to justice.

After sending a text to Steph from Andy's mobile phone to dump her, causing her to leave the country alone, Phelan goes on to meet Eileen at the wedding reception where they get married; with Todd and Billy present as well.

Using the money that he forced Vinny to deliver prior to killing him, Phelan takes the opportunity to repay all the Calcutta Street victims — creating goodwill in the Weatherfield community, and thus cheering up Eileen as she was saddened over the arson attack.

She invites Phelan over to her house for a drink under the guise of putting their differences aside; however, he smells a rat when she questions his motives of framing her and cunningly denies his involvement in Seb's accident — leading a furious Anna to throw him out after her plan has failed.

In December 2017, Phelan hires a private investigator to track down his daughter in Manchester and proceeds to have Gary visit Nicola in an attempt to convince her to return to Weatherfield — threatening to expose their one-night stand to Sarah otherwise.

The next morning, Phelan feigns surprise when the residents find out about Luke's death after the police turn up on the street to inform his girlfriend: Yasmeen's granddaughter Alya (Sair Khan) of the devastating news.

Fearing that Phelan may kill him next, Seb leaves his house and goes to stay with his mother: Abi (Sally Carman), a struggling drug addict who recently lost custody of her twins Charlie and Lexi back in October 2017.

Phelan manages to cope with Nicola's betrayal by supporting Eileen when they learn that Todd has been arrested for assaulting a policeman during an attempt to flee Weatherfield with his adopted daughter, Summer Spellman (Matilda Freeman), on Christmas Eve 2017.

Following Anna's wrongful imprisonment, Phelan begins to turn Eileen against her friends in order to continue retaining their marriage with his wife's eternal trust over him — which starts to diminish her friendships with Liz and Tim in the process.

However, she is left disappointed when her husband doesn't show up at the event; it turns out that Phelan's party is on the same day that the mill project's lake will be drained, prompting him to make a desperate attempt in relocating Andy and Vinny somewhere else.

Though he denies causing the deaths of Michael and Luke, as well as Anna's wrongful conviction, Phelan gleefully reveals the truth about "Calcutta Street" — admitting that the project was indeed a scam and that he had been ripping the residents off in the first place.

Phelan then leaves the taxi and heads back home, unaware that Tim had actually been recording his confession to Eileen as she listened through — causing her to finally learn the truth about "Calcutta Street".

They bid goodbye to each and start to go their separate ways until Phelan realizing that Eileen has the boat keys and heads back to find her listening to Tim's voice message — thus confirming everyone's theory about him.

This ultimately proves to be the last straw for Eileen, who responds by angrily stamping on her husband's fingers whilst repeatedly calling him a "liar"; Phelan eventually loses his grip and ends up falling into the rough sea below.

Meanwhile, Eileen spends a night at the police station when she gets arrested for abetting her husband in his criminal activities and is later interrogated by chef inspector DS Keith Willetts (James Quinn) about her knowledge of Phelan's crimes — more specifically about the "Calcutta Street" scam and Andy's captivity.

She is eventually released without charge, thanks to the assistance of her lawyer and Yasmeen's grandson-in-law Imran Habeeb (Charlie de Melo), but quickly finds herself Weatherfield's public enemy — as several residents, specifically Alya and Faye, confront Eileen over her ignorance towards Phelan's nature.

Towards the end of the month, Gary becomes suspicious with her mysterious contact and quickly finds out that it was Phelan after tracking his location in Wales — with help from his army friend, Joe Haslam (Chord Melodic).

As Sarah argued with Gary when he refuses to get the police involved about his return, Phelan is discovered by Kevin's young son Jack (Kyran Bowes) — whom he previously helped rescue Anna back on New Year's Day 2017 — and he attempts to bribe the youngster with a tender into setting him free.

After tricking Nicola into letting him in, Phelan forces his way into the house where he meets Zac and spitefully tells Eileen that their "marriage" meant nothing — stating that it was all part of his original plan to cover-up his crimes.

Feeling guilty for shooting his own daughter, Phelan storms into the bistro — interrupting Robert's wedding to his co-partner, Michelle Connor (Kym Marsh) — with Nicola in his arms, begging for help.

He instigates a siege and holds the couple along with their wedding guests, including Roy and Daniel, at gunpoint; amongst the hostages include Roy's friend Mary Taylor (Patti Clare), Daniel's girlfriend Sinead Tinker (Katie McGlynn), Jenny and her stepdaughter Kate (Faye Brookers), Zeedan's ex-wife Rana (Bhavna Limbachia), and Michelle's two sons Ali Neeson (James Burrows) and Ryan (Ryan Prescott) as well as her two sister-in-laws Maria (Samia Longchambon) and Carla (Alison King) — the latter of whom Phelan had previously helped save on the night he returned to Weatherfield back in January 2016, two years ago.

At first, Phelan refuses to let the guests call an ambulance, and instead orders Roy to confiscate everyone's phones before telling Ali — a trainee general practitioner — to save Nicola under the threat of shooting his mother.

After making Ali promise to save Nicola, with Maria and Rana stepping in to help out as well, Phelan requests for a hostage and insists on taking Michelle — despite both Carla and Roy's offer to be taken captive themselves.

Shortly afterwards, Michelle and Nicola are rushed to hospital — where the pair would end up recovering from their gunshot wounds — while Anna, after freeing Gary and Sarah from Phelan's captivity, meets Zac for the first time whilst reuniting with her family.

[8] The character Pat Phelan has proved popular with fans and its portrayer, Connor McIntyre, appeared as one of the three Coronation Street actors-nominees for a "Villain of the Year" at The British Soap Awards 2014.