Vinny Ashford is a fictional character in Coronation Street who currently appears as the tertiary antagonist in the 2016 series; albeit he maybe set to become either the main or secondary antagonist in the 2017 series should he stay in Weatherfield.
He is portrayed by Ian Kelsey.
History
Vinny first arrived in Weatherfield on August 2016 to tell 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 wasn't 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'd get the money as soon as it had cleared through the bank.