The film paints the banking establishment as entitled, elitist and greedy. Has anything changed?
Big banks dislike me with a passion. We’ve lent more than £30m to thousands of people and businesses across the UK. We’re a tiny little community financial operation.
Over the years, we’ve helped people get the best rate of interest, we’ve lent that money out to people in businesses who can’t borrow from their high street bank, and the profit we’ve given to charity. It’s not rocket science. And if I can do it – a lad from Burnley who sells buses – then anybody can.
Why have local banks not sprung up all over Britain?
The big banks have done absolutely nothing to help the public move forward in any way shape or form. When it comes to community banking, they are not interested.
You can’t be very popular with the banking establishment?
I like that they dislike me with a passion. But the big banks are just not helpful. They give you an umbrella when it’s sunny and take it off you when it rains. People who rob banks go to prison, but banks who rob people get paid bonuses. How does that work?
How did you become an entrepreneur?
I loved cars, but I didn’t have the price of a gallon of petrol.
One time I was on the building site, and I was starving. I couldn’t afford the price of a chip butty – and that was my light-bulb moment.
I went around all the garages and I found one that had some old part exchanges and I said, “Could I take that old part exchange away? I’ll clean it up. I’ll scrub it off. I’ll sell it. I’ll advertise it and I’ll bring you back an agreed amount of money, and the difference is mine.”
I eventually found a garage that agreed, and I agreed to give them £70 for this [Vauxhall] Cavalier when I sold it. I took it away, scrubbed it up, sold it for £97 so I made £27 profit. I repeated that process to the point where I could negotiate a better deal and could pay upfront, and that’s how it started.
I had nothing, but I found a way. I’ve built five multimillion-pound businesses from scratch.
Is there a contradiction in your altruism and the huge personal fortune you have amassed?
No. Some newspapers incorrectly speculate that I’m worth all sorts of wild figures, but the point is once you get past £20m it stops being a relevant number.
Anything you really want in life, to feed yourself, clothe yourself and your kids and your wife, and have a nice house and a car and holidays, you can easily get. Anything after that you start having to ask yourself what you’re going to do with it and I’m going to give 90pc of my net worth away when I die, because I don’t believe in leaving large amounts of money to the children.
