Lee Banks

**Lee Michael Banks** is a member of the Organised Crime Syndicate currently incarcerated in HMP Blackthorn.

## Background

### Personal

Banks was born on the 25th May 1985. He is the brother of Carl Banks. His registered address before his incarceration was: 38 Cairns End, South Ferry, VM26 4RY.

### Professional

Banks is a career criminal with a long record, having been a member of the Organised Crime Syndicate prior to the events of Series 5. He is a close associate of Robert Denmoor.

### Criminal Record

According to the Police National Computer, Banks has several past convictions and charges, including:

* Aggravated Robbery (2003) - 3 Years Custody
* Grievous Bodily Harm and Possession of an Offensive Weapon (2009) - 5 Years Custody
* Possession with Intent to Supply Class A Drugs (2015) - 4 Years Custody

## Series 5

### Episode 1

During the ambush of the ED-905 police convoy from Eastfield Police Storage Facility, his colleague Lisa McQueen is able to convince Sergeant Jane Cafferty to halt the convoy and render aid by pretending her baby is stuck in a burning car. Once Cafferty realises the child is a doll, Lee emerges from behind a hedge and shoots her underneath her bulletproof vest with an Uzi submachine gun.

His colleagues Miroslav, Ryan Pilkington and John Corbett then gun down the other Authorised Firearms Officers guarding the convoy, and are able to escape with the payload: £10million of seized heroin seized by Central Police from a biker gang run by Paul Slater.

Banks is later seen accompanying John Corbett and the rest of the group to meet with Paul Slater, the leader of a biker gang and rival of the Organised Crime Syndicate, to try and make a deal where they keep half of the heroin (or are paid half its street value). After the deal, he is seen sat in the VIP section of nightclub Flicker with Ryan Pilkington.

When John Corbett becomes suspicious of PC Maneet Bindra's true intentions when she asks to start working for the group, he has Lee and Ryan follow and kidnap her. Back at Kingsgate Printing Services upon discovering Bindra has bugged her burner phone given to her by Lisa McQueen, Lee is ordered by Corbett to kill her. He and Ryan Pilkington take her to the quayside where Oliver Stephens-Lloyd and ACC Derek Hilton were found dead, and slits her throat whilst Ryan holds her in place.

### Episode 2

Along with John Corbett, Ryan Pilkington, Miroslav and other members of the Organised Crime Syndicate, Banks takes part in the attack and hijacking of a second police convoy, this one travelling from the Midlands Forensic Ballistics Laboratory. On orders from Corbett, he and the other gunmen to not kill the Authorised Firearms Officers providing security, but simply direct suppressing fire on their vehicles armour plating, keeping them pinned down and trapped whilst the hijacking takes place. Banks attempts to shoot one of the officers who emerges from his car, but is stopped by Corbett, who opens fire and causes the AFO to return into the car. He is later seen eyeing Corbett suspiciously as Miroslav and other gang members unload the merchandise from the hijacked van.

Banks is later identified by AC-12 from mobile phone footage taken by a member of the public of him and Ryan Pilkington kidnapping PC Maneet Bindra. It is revealed he is a long time associate of Robert Denmoor, one of the Balaclava Men pursued by DCI Roz Huntley and Operation Trapdoor who was shot dead by Superintendent Ted Hastings. He later works with Lisa McQueen to put John Corbett in contact with "H", the corrupt officer who serves as a leader of the Organised Crime Syndicate.

Banks is later instructed by John Corbett to go to the house of Sergeant Jane Cafferty (who is recovering from her injuries) and give her a large envelope of money, assured that the Authorised Firearms Officer guarding the property is working for them. However, Banks is arrested by Central Police after officers with the Strategic Firearms Command raid the house, which had been placed under surveillance by AC-12 previously.

### Episode 4

Banks is visited in HMP Blackthorn by Superintendent Ted Hastings of AC-12. Although he tells the guard he has nothing to say, Hastings demand he sit down, informing him he has a few things to say to him, and tells him he will be glad to hear them.

## Series 6

### Episode 4

Banks is allowed into the cell of Jimmy Lakewell by a corrupt SecuritVite officer inside HMP Blackthorn. Knowing that Lakewell was offered witness protection by AC-12, but refused after the convoy transporting him was attacked by the Organised Crime Group, Banks attacks and garrottes the lawyer to death, presuming he has talked. This is done in front of DSU Ian Buckells to intimidate him, with Banks warning him that is what happens to a "rats". The incident is covered up by corrupt officers within the prison, who make it appear Lakewell committed suicide by hanging.

### Episode 5

Although previously cited as canon by Jed Mercurio in a post Season 5 interview, Banks finally clears up the nature of Ted Hastings’ visit to HMP Blackthorn; this suspicious evidence was used by Patricia Carmichael in a case to declare the gaffer as ‘H’.

Banks is revealed to be the brother of Carl Banks, a potential suspect in the ongoing inquiry into journalist Gail Vella’s murder. Vella requested to speak with corrupt police officers now inmates of both HMP Blackthorn and HMP Brentiss weeks before her murder, who were known to have OCG affiliation. Banks was the only OCG affiliate who accepted her request, although the nature of this interview has not yet been disclosed.

Steve Arnott visits Banks in prison for the purpose of gathering intel; Banks then reveals, on the subject of “rats”, that it was in fact Ted Hastings who revealed to him that John Corbett was an undercover police officer posing as the head of his former OCG unit.