Alfie Best

Best was born in a caravan at the side of a road in Leicester to a poor Romanichal Gypsy family.[2](registration required) He left school at the age of 12 and started his first business at 14 years old, buying and selling cars and vans.[5]

In 1990, aged 20, his car business almost collapsed so he got a job at a phone shop earning £70 a week. Three weeks later he started his own mobile phone shop then 18 months later with the help of a bank loan, he had thirteen stores in London. He later sold the business and moved to property investing.[5]

In 2001, he bought his first mobile home park in Romford, Essex, the Lakeview Residential Park.[6] He has since begun businesses in the hospitality, leisure, events, trading and finance industries. In 2018 he purchased a golf course in Herefordshire.[2]

In October 2011, Best voluntarily accepted a police caution for an alleged physical assault on one of his residents at Scatterdells Park, Bovingdon. The resident was protesting alterations to the park. She later pressed charges, with police offering Best either a caution or go to court.[7]

In July 2015, he and his business Wyldecrest Parks were shortlisted for both Entrepreneur of the Year and Retail & Property categories at the 2015 London Loves Excellence awards.[8] Wyldecrest Parks won Retail & Property Business of the Year.[9] In November 2018 Best was voted the 48th most influential person in the 2018 Essex Power 100 list, and ranked at number 11 in Leicestershire's rich-list.[10]

In 2013, Best and his son Alfie Jnr appeared on the Channel 4 television programme My Big Fat Gypsy Fortune.[11] In 2018 he played a small cameo in the British crime film Once Upon a Time in London.[12]

In July 2016, Best was left with a "deep cut" after an attack by his son-in-law with a machete. It was heard he had previously reported "ongoing domestic violence" against his daughter Elizabeth but decided not to make an official complaint, instead opting to settle the dispute with a bareknuckle match. His son-in-law received a 13-month prison sentence for the attack.[12]

In 2018, Best set up a charity called Wyldecrest Parks Charity, funding staffing and running costs himself.[13]