I ramble a lot on this. Be warned.

Okay, so I actually read this somewhere else (a Tumblr post, I think. I'm still trying to find the original. Credit to the original owner. I WILL FIND YOU!), but there's a theory that Mr. Skint was Osgood Brownlow.

The principles and 'tricks' that Brownlow taught Richard Maxwell are pretty close to what Skint taught Buck Oliver.

Because Richard first appeared in 1989 (last seen in the Blackgaard plot in 1995), and since the show, loosely, follows real world time, there's a lot of opportunity in between for Skint to have adopted Buck, whose first episode appearance was in 2011 at age 14.

The space between that and when Brownlow entered/exited Richard's life (first showing up when he was around 8 or 10, and leaving the family after Richard had moved out and was in college) was around 20 years (I know that not all of this is fully accurate. Bite me).

Taking this into account, it would be around 1997 (most likely '98) when Skint adopted Buck if this is close to what's right. Two years after Richard's last appearance.

This is all my caffeine-deprived brain can comprehend/write down/think of right now. Sorry if this is completely off, or too hard to comprehend. Thoughts, comments, concerns?