Maurice Preston was the husband of Shirley Preston and father of Robert Preston. In 1996 he attended his son's wedding to Tracy Barlow. Robert ended up going missing after his stag night. The following morning Maurice and the Barlows searched around Weatherfield to find him. Ken and Deirdre Barlow if he had any idea where the two had got to. He told them that he had locked them inside a container while they were drunk. When they arrived at freight yard they searched through all the containers but found out that the crate that he was supposedly inside had already been shipped to Liverpool. When the two headed home to tell Tracy they found Robert at their house and that it had been all a wild goose chase. Later in the evening Robert and Tracy got married.