After purchasing the Minute Mart grocery store, Patrick and Yolande run it together. Patrick is assaulted there, and although Chelsea and her friend Dean Wicks (Matt Di Angelo) claim the assailant is Sean Slater (Robert Kazinsky) in a set-up, it is later revealed to be Craig Dixon (Rory Jennings), whom Patrick had disagreed with over the sale of alcohol. Patrick becomes fearful of leaving his house, but eventually overcomes this with support from his wife and friends. After Yolande impresses a Minute Mart official, she is offered a management position in Birmingham. Yolande accepts and prepares to move, however Patrick is less keen. Yolande leaves for Birmingham in October 2008, leaving Patrick behind to sell their house under the premise he will join her later. However, Yolande ultimately decides she is happier without Patrick and ends their marriage, leaving Patrick devastated; they divorce in 2009. The Fox family move in with Patrick, including Denise's lover Lucas Johnson (Don Gilet), a religious fanatic. When Patrick discovers Lucas is withholding information about a tryst he has had with his ex-wife Trina (Sharon Duncan Brewster), Patrick orders him to confess. Lucas responds by blackmailing Patrick, threatening to tell Denise about his criminal past during the 1958 Notting Hill race riots when Patrick was convicted of assault. Patrick's past was revealed anyway, by Chelsea's boyfriend Theo Kelly (Rolan Bell), who is in league with Tommy Clifford (Edward Woodward). Tommy claims to be writing a book about black culture, but it is eventually revealed that he is the man who killed Patrick's fiancée, Ruth, in a fire in the 1950s. Patrick is furious, but eventually relents to Tommy's dying wish and forgives his criminal act moments before his death.