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I spent a day in the life of Britain’s richest gypsy Alfie Best… here’s what baffled me about his high flying lifestyle
ALFIE Best is Britain's richest gypsy with a jaw-dropping net worth of £740MILLION - and it's only up from here.
He boasts a personalised £4.5million Aston Martin helicopter, has his very own football club - and his collection of flashy supercars would stun even the most avid petrolhead.
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And if all goes to plan, Alfie will be crowned the world's first gypsy billionaire as early as next year.
His jaw-dropping wealth comes from his residential park homes empire Wyldecrest Parks, which made £32MILLION last year alone.
Sun reporter Jemma was offered a peek into a normal day in Alfie Best's high-flying life.
The day began in his £6million Surrey mansion, where his well-heeled neighbours include an Arab sheikh and Queen rock star Brian May.
Multimillionaire Alfie starts at 6am - with a simple cup of coffee before work kicks off bang on 7am.
And his hustle doesn't stop, with Alfie working late into the night.
Most baffling of all, he doesn't stop for breakfast, lunch nor dinner - only breaking his fast with a late-night meal before bed.
Speaking to the Sun from his lavishly decorated kitchen, Alfie said: "No breakfast. I don't know how it came about but I absolutely don't have breakfast.
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"I think everything we do is a habit. When you start forgetting to have breakfast and lunch... it just becomes the norm.
"Once, I went to the Bank of England for a meeting with HSBC. Before that my assistant Katherine says: 'What lunch do you want me to order?'
"I just told her to order whatever she fancies.
"So I get to the meeting and everyone else is having sandwiches and salad.
"I turn up and I've got a prawn cocktail starter. Then I get a T-bone steak. Then I get a tiramisu with sauce. Everybody around this table is looking at me and I think, 'Sh**!'
"I can't leave it because that'll look bad. I had to explain that I don't ever eat lunch... Catherine had no clue what to order!"
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After the early start Alfie heads straight into meetings at Wyldecrest headquarters.
This year alone, the firm grossed £32million in profit - up from £29m last year.
Once Alfie battles through emails, cracks on with meetings and takes phone calls from partners, it's off to his football club East Thurrock FC.
Alfie didn't purchase the ground for any love of football.
He said: "I'm not a football fan at all - I'm a boxing fan. The club was in difficulty - as a lot of clubs are. And it's important to give back to the community.
"We invested in the club, and now it supports itself."
It's there that Alfie's personalised helicopter - designed by James Bond’s favourite car company, Aston Martin - picks him up.
Just 15 of the seven-seater aircraft have been made - and Alfie was given Number 007.
In true Alfie form, he even crowned it with the registration G-YPSE which is emblazoned on the fuselage.
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Average day in the life of Britain's richest gypsy Alfie Best
6am - Alfie's alarm goes off and he starts his day with a cup of coffee.
7am - The day begins. Alfie jumps in the car on the way to Wyldecrest HQ. He cracks on with emails, meetings and phone calls with various teams.
11.30am - Off to Alfie's football club East Thurrock FC, where his chopper pilot Grant whisks him across the country for meetings at holiday parks.
1pm - Alfie hops back in the chopper for a visit to his privately owned Sapey Golf Club, for meetings with the board.
3.30pm - After meetings, Alfie jumps back in the car for a trip to his hotel Hop Pole. There, he inspects building work at the property before heading back to the chopper.
4.30pm - Back to the helicopter and back to East Thurrock FC.
5.30pm - After landing, Alfie is straight back in the car for a drive to London for another inspection, this time of a property he's doing up in the capital.
6.45pm - Then, a drive home. There, Alfie will continue working late into the evening, often not finishing before 10pm.
It's in the midst of glamorous chopper rides and jaunts in his chauffeur-driven Range Rover that Alfie shares what troubles him.
"I'm not a sports personality, I'm not an actor. I'm not judged on my talent. So I don't win fans over," he says.
"I'm judged on every business decision that I make. And worst of all, I'm judged on what every other gypsy has ever done in their life.
"Being a gypsy comes with a stigma: 'Gypsies, tramps thieves and liars'. And that's a bar I have to get over.
"I never told anyone I was a gypsy until I was 35. I never ever ever did. Why would you? It comes with a detriment.
"That prejudice exists every day. It only matters if you allow those prejudices to enter into your every day life.
"If that's someone's view, don't change it. Just be the better person. Being the better person in anything you do will always shine through.
"Why try to change a bigot's mind. Carry on with your path, be successful in your path. Success conquers all."
And Alfie's tips for success?
"If an idiot like me can slowly fulfil his goals, anybody can. Because I am not a gifted person.
"Persistence and hard work has allowed me to conquer each step of success. Am I successful? Absolutely not. Success is a journey.
"My top tips. Start, start, start. Be consistent and persistent and believe in what you're doing.
"Make sure that you are your best customer. Because if you're not, how can you expect any other customer to be.
"Never give up. I'm still working like I'm bankrupt. I'm working like it all ends tomorrow."
Alfie did not start off with millions.
He was brought up on the living in a caravan on a lay-by with an outdoor camp fire as a stove. But his childhood was happy, he shares.
Alfie said: "There was nothing wrong with how I was living - if I'm honest with you.
"I hear all these sob stories about how people were living hard lives.
"But they never fail to tell you that they knew know different.
"I didn't see anything wrong with the way I was brought up.
"Our kitchen was a cooking pan and a pot outside on an open fire. That was our cooking stove.
"I thought there was nothing wrong with it. People pay to go camping. It's what you're used to.
"We lived in a small caravan, me, my dad and my mum. Three of us. By small I'm talking ten foot long.
"We always had food in the cupboard - but we'd go out with our lurcher dog and what we killed, we'd eat.
"I'm talking about pheasants, rabbits, hares. I'm going to be honest with you - it seems a lifetime away that didn't happen.
"This is becoming the real and that's becoming the surreal. You've got to be careful with that."
Alfie's company now owns over 100 residential parks country-wide. The properties hit the market for as little as £15k.
The millionaire's ethos is simple - he wants to offer affordable homes for as many people as he can.
He says: "What we do as a company is ground-breaking . What we're doing is creating better lives for people. Do we get it right all the time? No.
"Are we pleasing every one of our clients? No.
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"But if I can please 90 per cent-plus then I'm happy with that.
"Park home living isn't for everybody. But I feel like I've been blessed with something that can genuinely change people's lives. And we are changing lives - 16,000 residents can't be wrong."
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