Home and Away's Mali Hudson sabotages Theo in love triangle plot

 But he's quickly caught out.

Home and Away's Mali Hudson gets caught out in a lie on UK screens next week.

The surf shop owner makes a sneaky decision when he realises that he could have competition for Abigail Fowler's attention.

This week's episodes see Mali's housemate Mackenzie Booth point out that he seems to have a crush on Abigail. Mali initially denies it, but he later admits to Mackenzie that she was right.

After giving it some thought, Mali decides not to pursue things with Abigail for the moment as she's still undergoing counselling following her drug issues. He's also conscious that Abigail is his employee at the board shop.

In follow-on scenes next week, Mali tries to focus on being a friend to Abigail as she confides in him over her ongoing family troubles.

Mali is then put on the spot when his friend Theo Poulos wants to know whether Abigail is single.

Theo asks about "Tim" after hearing Abigail mention him. Although Tim is Abigail's former counsellor, Mali lies that he's her boyfriend so that Theo backs off.

Mali regrets his lie straight away and tells Mackenzie that he overstepped the mark – but he admits that he just couldn't bear the thought of Theo and Abigail hooking up.

Later in the week, there's further chaos involving Abigail when she finds out that her sister Eden has started a secret relationship with Tim.

This is the reason that Tim dropped Abigail as a client and she's outraged at Eden for messing things up.

In the ensuing rows, Theo finds out Tim's true identity and he's baffled by Mali's lie.

Theo calls out Mali over his behaviour, but Mali claims that he only told the lie to protect Abigail and continues to cover his own feelings. Will Theo accept this? And have Mali's efforts failed when an upset Abigail turns to Theo for support rather than him?

Home and Away airs these scenes on Wednesday, February 12 and Thursday, February 13 on Channel 5.