Mobile dwelling empire owned by UK’s richest gypsy accused of misselling
- Louise Hopkins fears having to go away her cellular dwelling in Abingdon, Oxfordshire
- ‘Gypsy billionaire’ Alfie Best, who owns Wyldecrest Parks, denies wrongdoing
A cellular dwelling empire owned by Britain’s richest gypsy has been accused of misselling properties, with a lady telling how she mistakenly purchased a £165,000 caravan with out planning permission.
Louise Hopkins says she could possibly be be unnoticed of pocket after shopping for the cellular dwelling in Bayworth Park in Oxfordshire, an property owned by rich businessman Alfie Best.
He has been dubbed the ‘Gypsy Billionaire’ after constructing a property portfolio which incorporates 101 residential parks and earned him a fortune valued at £745million in final 12 months’s Sunday Times Rich List.
But Mr Best, 53, has now come below scrutiny by investigators from BBC‘s Panorama programme – highlighting Ms Hopkins’ predicament.
She says she was left in the dead of night a few planning dispute hanging over her new dwelling – and fears she might now be pressured out of it.
Wyldecrest Parks proprietor Alfie Best has a property empire and fortune valued at £745million
Louise Hopkins paid £165,000 for a motor dwelling she didn’t know lacked planning permission
Ms Hopkins fears she might have to maneuver out of the house at Bayworth Park in Oxfordshire
A cellular dwelling with out planning permission was bought by certainly one of Mr Best’s firms at Bayworth Park in Abingdon in 2015, earlier than the native council started enforcement motion over the planning breach the next 12 months.
The property’s then-owners launched authorized motion once they found the dearth of planning permission and Mr Best’s first in the end purchased it again in January 2020.
Ms Hopkins snapped up the house for £165,000 in October however solely afterwards discovered it didn’t have planning permission.
Wyldecrest was fined £75,000 in 2021 for breaching planning guidelines however Ms Hopkins fears she stays liable to shedding her dwelling as a result of it nonetheless doesn’t have planning permission.
She mentioned she not advised of any planning dispute or issues when first proven the property at Bayworth Park.
She advised Panorama: ‘I used to be knowingly bought a house that didn’t have planning permission. I feel it is fraud. I completely suppose it is fraud.
‘It appears like insanity now that I did not have interaction a lawyer – I really feel fairly silly, I really feel fairly offended. A really wealthy and influential man has handled me appallingly.’
Mr Best insisted he was to not blame, saying that his agency Wyldecrest had first bought the property to a different resident earlier than it was bought on to Ms Hopkins – and that website homeowners weren’t permitted to intervene in gross sales by residents.
He advised the BBC: ‘We didn’t promote Mrs Hopkins a house. She bought the house from the earlier proprietor of that dwelling, not us.’
Mr Best – who has mentioned he anticipated his fortune to succeed in £1billion this 12 months – has provided to purchase it again from her however no worth has been agreed, he added.
MailOnline has contacted Wyldecrest Parks for additional remark.
The British Holiday and Home Parks Association, which represents website homeowners, mentioned: ‘Many 1000’s of individuals purchase a vacation caravan or residential park dwelling every year – the overwhelming majority of whom have a optimistic expertise, and go on to get pleasure from all the vacation and way of life advantages that include possession.’
Alfie Best (pictured) featured in 2021 ITV present Undercover Big Boss
Mr Best, pictured left, owns 91 vacation and residential parks throughout the UK
Other claims have been made by extra Wyldecrest residents in final Monday’s Panorama.
One couple, Cheryl and David, advised of struggling issues together with a lacking door after final 12 months shopping for a ‘luxurious’ cellular dwelling for £125,000 and spending £7,000 on enhancements at Wyldecrest Parks-owned Angel of the North Residential Park in Tyne and Wear.
They mentioned council planning enforcement motion meant they have been moved to the sting of the park, after being advised that they had been too shut to a different dwelling, and left with no steps, uncovered electrical cables, and brickwork which had not been carried out.
Louise advised the programme: I do not understand how lengthy we’ll dwell like this and I do not know what else we will do. We invested all our cash right here.’
Mr Best advised Panorama the explanation for the transfer was an argument between the couple and a neighbour and their very own choice to shift to a distinct plot.
Mr Best himself was born in a caravan on the aspect of a highway close to Leicester however now lives in a £6million mansion in Surrey.
He featured in ITV’s 2021 sequence Undercover Big Boss as he went undercover to learn how his employees felt about working for Wyldecrest Parks, whereas there may be additionally an hour-long Amazon documentary about him known as Gypsy Billionaire.
He started his enterprise profession in his teenagers promoting automobiles and vans, earlier than establishing a bunch of cell phone shops on the age of 20.
After transferring into property and shopping for up vacation and residential parks throughout the UK, his possessions embody a £4.5million helicopter designed by Aston Martin.
But he has beforehand insisted: ‘This genuinely is not about incomes any extra money. I’m of the opinion that after getting made 5 or ten million, then you don’t want any extra money than that.
‘That’s all the cash on the planet so far as I’m involved as a result of that lets you do the whole lot. After that, it is about really constructing one thing that makes a distinction.’
Mr Best advised the Sun: ‘I get quite a lot of criticism however I’ve bought broad shoulders. You have simply bought to take it and settle for it and realise I’m fortunate.’
In 2015, when he was value £200 million, Mr Best advised MailOnline he did not ‘really feel profitable’.
He added: ‘What is profitable? I’m nonetheless working stuff out as a lot as the subsequent particular person.
‘I’m in a fortunate sufficient place to know that I made some good selections however, the reality is, I’m a little bit of a dunce.
‘I stand up each morning and I pinch myself and thank my fortunate stars that I’ve had the luck to be the place I’m.’
His first enterprise was a van rent centre and dealership he launched in Forest Gate, east London, when aged simply 16.
He has advised of studying the salesperson ropes as a ten-year-old, when he carried out door-to-door gross sales as a part of his father’s Tarmac enterprise.
The entrepreneur, pictured right here at a gala screening of The Courier in August 2021 alongside presenter Lizzie Cundy, says so far as he is involved he already has all the cash he wants
The 53-year-old, pictured right here for TV present Undercover Big Boss final 12 months, owns Wyldecrest Parks, which operates 91 cellular dwelling parks throughout the nation
Mr Best, pictured as a toddler together with his mother and father, was born into poverty in a Leicester caravan
When recession hit within the early Nineties, he managed to hold on ‘by the pores and skin of my enamel’ – renting out his dwelling, rising his financial institution mortgage and sleeping in his automotive.
He then took a job as a tea boy at a telephone store in close by East Ham earlier than establishing his personal cell phone enterprise three months later with the assistance of a mortgage – and inside 18 months, he had 13 retailers throughout London.
After later promoting that firm he moved into industrial property and now has an estimated 80 acres of commercial models throughout the nation.
He purchased his first motor dwelling park 2001 for £1.7million, the Lakeview Residential Park in Romford, Essex.
BBC One’s newest version of Panorama, known as The Mobile Home Swindle, might be watched on iPlayer right here.
