Britain’s richest gypsy reveals he lost friends at school
Britain’s richest gypsy Alfie Best has revealed that as a schoolboy he struggled with his non-travelling classmates, who he says discriminated against him because of his background.
Alfie, 53, who is on his way to being worth £1 billion as the owner of a huge mobile home park empire, revealed in the film Billionaire Gypsy that his parents had placed him in different schools while traveling the country with the Romani community .
However, because he switched between so many different schools, he struggled to get a good education and also to fit in with other kids – made worse, he claims, by teachers telling his peers that he was a traveler.
The film, which premiered last night at the Cannes Film Festival, explores Alfie’s upbringing and early ventures that led him to become head of residential developments at Wyldecrest Parks.
The businessman, who now lives in a £6 million house in Surrey, recalls the struggles he faced in his youth. Alfie says the Roma community faced a lot of discrimination, but added that his struggles were “character building.”
Alfie, who was born on the side of a road in Lutterworth near Leicester, reveals at the beginning of the film that his mother and father, Jane and Alfie Sr., intended to send him to school.
Jane says, “I’ve never really been uneducated, never seen the inside of a classroom. I didn’t want that life for my son.’
However, despite his mother’s best intentions, Alfie explained how moving to and from different schools affected his education because he didn’t spend long enough in one institution and the teachers “didn’t pay much attention to him.” He added that he also struggled to make friends.
“You’d get schools where the teachers would tell the kids in class that you were a gypsy,” he explained.
“One time I became very close with a boy at school. The next day he wouldn’t talk to me because the teacher had told him I was a gypsy.
Alfie Best, the UK’s richest gypsy estimated to be worth nearly £1 billion, reveals in Billionaire Gypsy film that his school days were difficult
Alfie (pictured as a child) reveals in the film that he was discriminated against in school for being a traveler
Alfie’s mother Jane (pictured) remembers in the film how she never had an education and wanted something different for her son Alfie
“The experience of it is everything. You would fight every few days at school because you were a gypsy and you would hide it as much as possible.’
Alfie added that he was in the thick of it because, while the kids at school didn’t like him because he was a traveller, the other Roma kids didn’t agree with him going to school.
“You would be labeled the gorger boy,” he explained, “gorger” being a word used in the Roma community for non-Romas.
Explain how he was encouraged to fight ‘as hard as’ [he] could” as a child, Alfie insisted he hadn’t had a bad childhood and added the experiences “built character.”
Elsewhere in the film, as Alfie travels back and forth across the UK in his helicopter to visit the sites he owns, his 27-year-old daughter Elizabeth talks about her passion for the family business of residential parks.
The businesswoman, who works as a park manager for Wyldecrest Parks, her father’s £700 million empire based in Windsor.
Elizabeth Best, 27, is Alfie’s daughter and park manager at a Wyldecrest Parks site in Windsor as she follows in her father’s footsteps
She reveals in the film that at the end of primary school she had a conversation with her parents about her future and they came to a mutual decision that she would not continue with school.
Elizabeth reveals that when she was old enough to drive, she took herself to Chelsea and Kensington College to study millinery instead of a standard high school education.
“We grew up in a park, we grew up learning and interacting and spending time and forming relationships with the residents,” she explains.
Elizabeth describes the strong sense of community she gained growing up where she bonded closely with her neighbors.
She describes the atmosphere as “like living with a lot of grandparents.”
As she lays out her ambitions to grow her father’s empire and continue his work, Alfie gushes about his daughter’s talents and ambition.
Alfie reveals his pride for his daughter Elizabeth, saying she didn’t walk ‘straight into a boardroom chair’ but worked her way up to where she is
He insists that Elizabeth, who also has a brother named Alfie, didn’t just walk into a “boardroom seat,” she worked hard to climb the ladder.
“She worked through it meticulously and slowly. And she’s worked from the ranks up,” he says.
At the end of the film, Alfie Sr. speaks. about his pride in his son’s achievements.
He says, “I don’t know if it’s a dream or what, but whatever it is, I’m really, really proud that it’s my son who did it.”
Alfie’s rise to the top was lightning fast in its own right, having been born on the side of the road near Leicester before entering the business world.
The 53-year-old started his career in his teens selling cars and vans before founding a group of mobile phone shops at the age of 20.
In 2015, when he was worth a paltry £200 million, Mr Best told MailOnline that he didn’t feel ‘successful’.
‘What is success? I’m still working out as many things as the next person,” he said.
“I’m lucky enough to know that I made some good choices, but the truth is I’m a bit dumb.
“I get up every morning and pinch myself and thank my lucky stars that I’ve been lucky enough to be where I am.”