UK’s richest gypsy Alfie Best flogs abandoned & peeling hotel after selling fleet of supercars in plan to quit country
BRITAIN’S richest gypsy Alfie Best is selling an abandoned hotel after flogging a fleet of supercars and leaving the country.
Billionaire Alfie, 54, has gone on a selling spree following his decision to leave the United Kingdom and live as a tax exile in Monaco.
Before he drove to the tiny principality early this month, ahead of a new tax year, he sold off eight supercars worth millions along with his prized £4.5million seven-seater Airbus ACH130 helicopter.
Alfie, who was born in a roadside caravan and went on to become Britain’s richest Romany gypsy, has now put a dilapidated hotel in Herefordshire on the market following calls for enforcement action.
The Hop Pole Hotel has now gone up for sale with Savills at a guide auction price of £165,000.
Alfie bought the property in 2019, saying at the time that he would plough £1.2million into restoring it, the Hereford Times reported.
In 2021 plans were submitted to Herefordshire Council to turn the market square hotel into a five-star venue.
Two years later permission was granted for a number of alterations including attic conversion, rooflights, demolition of an extension and converting the basement into a dining area.
But Alfie told the Hereford Times that the project suffered with a number of problems, including some due to the building’s listed status.
He said he had received “abuse instead of support” locally.
The building is now reportedly under threat of enforcement action.
The Zoopla listing for the property describes it as being located in an “attractive market town” with 17 rooms on the first and second floors.
It also says it has potential to be converted into nine residential flats.
The auction sale will take place on May 8.
Alfie is now renting a two-bed flat in Monaco which overlooks the famous Formula One course until he gets residency in the millionaires’ playground.
He still owns a £7million house near Ascot, along with a £10million yacht moored in Cannes and a £4million Knightsbridge townhouse.
Speaking exclusively to the Sun Online, Alfie revealed why he quit Britain to move overseas.
He said: “Look, I love Britain through and through but it seems we’ve lost our way and we’re chasing our business entrepreneurs out the front door.
“Sir Jim Radcliffe’s left, Sir James Dyson said he’d never leave but he went, Richard Branson’s left, too.
“The list goes on. They can’t all be wrong.”
To prepare for the move, he sold his entire supercar collection, including two Bugattis – a 300mph Chiron and a 250mph Veyron – together worth in excess of £3million.
He also flogged a Porsche, Bentley, Rolls-Royce convertible and two Mercedes G Wagons.
Humble beginnings to gypsy billionaire
Alfie was born in a gypsy caravan on the side of the road near Leicester in a snowstorm.
He quit school in Broxbourne, Herts, age 12, because he had already been working for two years, hawking Tarmac door-to-door with his dad.
By the time he was 17 he became a car dealer after selling a Ford Escort for £1,100 before moving into vans and mobile phones.
Nearly 25 years ago, aged 30, he set up Wyldecrest Parks, buying his first 120-mobile home site near Romford, Essex, for £1.7million.
The company now has more than 16,000 residents at over 100 sites from Inverness to Lands End employing 400 people.
The company recently expanded into the USA where US tycoon Warren Buffett – the fifth richest person on the planet – is a rival park owner.
Alfie also owns Wyldecrest Events, which owns some of the most expensive hospitality boxes at venues in the UK, and he is launching Best Wealth Network for aspiring tycoons.
In May, the next edition of the Sunday Times Rich List is expected to record Alfie’s fortune at £947million. If he sold his company tomorrow he would get more than a billion for it.
His wife Emily-Jane, son Alfie Jnr and daughter Elizabeth, who sits on the company’s board, will continue to live in the UK when the tycoon moves to Monaco.