Emmerdale’s Ross Barton declares war on his fellow villagers as they fail to set him up for a crime

EMMERDALE'S Ross Barton triumphed over his enemies, thwarting their attempts to frame him for a crime and blackmail him into leaving the village for good.

The bad boy (played by Michael Parr) has been causing a stir since he stormed back into the village, and last week, it looks like he might have finally pushed the Dingle and Milligan families too far.

Charity Dingle's (Emma Atkins) fury erupted when Ross launched a violent attack on her husband, Mackenzie Boyd (Lawrence Robb).

Meanwhile, Marlon Dingle (Mark Charnock) is far from pleased after his daughter April Windsor (Amelia Flanagan) discovered the harsh truth about her mum's death, all thanks to Ross' meddling.

Marlon's resentment hit boiling point when he unearthed the full story about April's kidnapping by the menacing Jade (Twinnie-Lee Moore), who has connections to Ross.

And Caleb Miligan (Will Ash) was not at all pleased with his daughter Steph's (Georgia Jay) decision to start a casual fling with Ross.

Monday's episode saw Caleb's take a dark turn by enlisting Jai Sharma (Chris Bisson) to help set Ross up for a crime.

Knowing Ross was desperate for quick cash, Jai slyly tipped him off with details on how to pull off an easy robbery at Caleb's warehouse.

Jai dangled a tempting bait: £20,000 stashed in the safe, the CCTV conveniently turned off, and the staff conveniently away on a team-building day.

But it was all a trap!

The cameras were rolling as usual, and Ross's enemies hoped to use the footage to blackmail him into leaving the village or hand him over to the police.

The stage was set for Ross to be outsmarted at last.

However, when Charity, Marlon, and Caleb eagerly gathered at The Woolpack to review the CCTV footage on a laptop...

They were greeted by a cheeky message from Ross himself: "Nice try, idiots."

Strutting into the pub with a smirk, Ross couldn't resist rubbing it in.

"Better luck next time, eh? As if I was going to fall for a sting like that. Who leaves £20,000 in a safe and brags about it?" he taunted, leaving Charity, Marlon, and Caleb fuming.

With a smug grin, Ross revealed, "By the way, I think you might be missing one of your vans. I saw it down the top lane, but it looked like it was missing a few boxes.

"My guess is that some chancer's taken it to pay off his debts. But without any hard evidence, it's just speculation, innit?"

Will Ross's enemies finally concede defeat, or will they hatch another scheme to bring him down?

Emmerdale airs weeknights at 7:30pm on ITV1 and is available from 7am on ITVX.