As an adult, Tom grew away from the family business and founded his own haulage firm, becoming familiar with fellow businessmen such as Frank Tate (Norman Bowler) and Alan Turner (Richard Thorp).
From their marriage they produced four sons: Jimmy (Nick Miles), Matthew (Matt Healy), Carl (Tom Lister) and Max (Charlie Kemp).
Marlon Dingle (Mark Charnock) was also present, doing the same, leading to the pair talking about their late wives, and Tom revealed that he had grown up in Emmerdale and was keen to return.
When the day of the wedding eventually arrived, Sadie gave Tom photos of Charity kissing her cousin and ex - lover Cain Dingle (Jeff Hordley).
After returning for the aborted wedding, Tom's youngest son Max prepared to leave Emmerdale to continue his around-the-world trip with his girlfriend Amy Carter (Bethany Webb).
However, when he later discovered the truth Max became tired of his father dictating his life, making plans to flee the village with friend Robert Sugden (Karl Davies).
However, in an act of revenge, Zoe destroyed the house by deliberately damaging the gas pipes just as she fled abroad, leaving Tom with a huge refurbishment bill.
However, when Sadie subsequently married the rich Alasdair Sinclair (Ray Coulthard) for his money Matthew realised he couldn't live without her and begged her for another chance, saying he'd give up the business if he had to.
Carl got around opposition by raffling off the showhouse and rigging the competition for local couple Marlon and Donna Windsor-Dingle (Verity Rushworth) to win, creating goodwill in the community.
Jimmy himself was trapped in the house, with only Sadie in a position to save him – but she took the opportunity to get rid of Matthew's rival for good, pushing him to what she assumed would be his death.
He decided marrying Sadie's mother-in-law Rosemary Sinclair (Linda Thorson), the wealthy auntie of the notorious late aristocrat Lord Alex Oakwell (Rupam Maxwell), could be the answer to his problems.
When Chas grew uncomfortable with how Tom was neglecting responsibility for the house collapse, he bullied and later bribed her into breaking things off with Carl before throwing her out of Home Farm.
When his loyal secretary Edna Birch (Shirley Stelfox) learned the truth about the Kings' alleged involvement behind the house collapse, Tom blackmailed her with the knowledge that she was the aunt of her nephew Peter (Philip Bird) – and not his son as he originally believed.
However, the family were quick to cover their tracks prior to the HSE's arrival – rendering Edna's evidence futile – and the organisation were forced to leave Tom and his sons alone under the threat of facing arrest for harassment.
In the meantime, Tom had been infuriating Bob Hope (Tony Audenshaw) – the father of Dawn Woods (Julia Mallam), who had died in the Kings River explosion – over neglecting responsibility of the house collapse, and their feud continued when Tom offered Bob £100,000 as compensation to drop any further action; he refused, but after Tom increased the offer and Dawn's mother Jean Hope (Susan Penhaligon) took the money before fleeing the country with her grandson son TJ (Connor Lee), Bob furiously retaliated, burning down the King & Sons billboard sign.
He is last seen in the mortuary as a pathologist concludes the post mortem examination of his body, and tells police officers investigating his murder what caused his death.