GYPSY BILLIONAIRE

UK | 57 mins | [12]

Born in a caravan to a dirt-poor Romany Gypsy family, Alfie Best’s first sight of the world was a snow-covered layby just outside Leicester. Despite a childhood spent being a victim of racism, working with his dad tarmacking driveways at eight, and leaving school at 12, Alfie is now the richest Gypsy on the planet.
At 14, he started his first business, consciously turning the scrap of his youth into metal for his future. By 1989, he was investing in property, earning £200,000 a year, and driving a brand-new Porsche. When the recession gutted his business, he lost everything. But boxing as a child had taught him to get straight back up when you get knocked down—even if you are living in the back of an Escort van.
Alfie might not be an academic, but he is a visionary. During the 90s, he predicted the importance of the connected future, investing in mobile phones and opening 18 stores across the country in 18 months. The following decade, he started investing in affordable housing, having accumulated a personal wealth of £5 Million. Twenty years later, he owns Europe’s largest affordable housing solution, valued at over one billion pounds.
Gypsy Billionaire is the story of how a man who should have failed became the most successful Gypsy in history whilst helping to solve the biggest crisis of our times.

Directed and Produced by Joel Van der Molen
With Alfie Best, Claire Sweeney, Terry Stone and Joel Van der Molen