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UK’s richest plumber reveals new life in sunny Spain after fleeing Britain to avoid Labour’s tax grab
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THE UK's richest plumber has revealed details of his new glitzy life in Spain after fleeing the UK to avoid Labour's tax grab.
Charlie Mullins, 72, who sold his company Pimlico Plumber for a staggering £142million, called his life on the Costa del Sol "magnificent".
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The father-of-four added he relocated and put his £12million UK gaffe up for sale following tax changes announced earlier this year.
The tycoon said he was fed up of being "ripped off" and would only consider coming back to his hometown if Nigel Farage's Reform took office.
He told the Mail Online: "I'll do anything I can to help get Reform in and Labour out," he said.
So much so, he's announced he will be running as councillor for the Reform party in upcoming local elections in South East London.
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Taking refuge in his four-storey mansion, Charlie and his partner Malek said they now enjoy hosting their friends at their bar and swimming pool.
He also likes to keep fit in his very own gym, where he works out with a personal trainer four or five times a week.
The plumber, who was previously engaged to 32-year-old singer Raquel Reno, has also splashed the cash on a range of swanky cars including a Bentley, Rolls Royce and Porsche.
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But for the multi-millionaire, a seven-seater Land Rover is often his go-to as it can better accommodate his extended family of 11 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
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It's not just expensive cars he has his sights set on though. Charlie is also keen on expanding his property into the hills above Marbella with a ten-bedroom mansion.
For Charlie though, the "wonderful" weather is Spain's biggest appeal as it means he can spend his days eating out in restaurants.
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This also means socialising is "10 times better than the UK" because "wherever you end up, it's likely you will know someone."
He said: "It's so friendly here, the people are so inviting and there's just more joy about.
"I could go out now and just go for breakfast around the cafe and come back at 12 o'clock tonight, that's how friendly it is."
The 71-year-old, who counts Simon Cowell and Dame Joan Collins as pals, added there wasn't much he missed about the UK.
'Rough' beginnings
Charlie’s life today couldn’t be further divorced from his “very poor” upbringing in London, growing up between rented accommodation in Camden and the Rockingham council estate, in Elephant and Castle.
“I couldn’t wait to get out of the council estate, it was quite rough, absolutely disgusting and had rubbish everywhere,” he says.
He recalls regularly being hungry and started doing odd jobs to supplement his factory worker Dad and cleaner mum’s earnings from the age of nine.
He says: “I never knew anyone poorer than us but I knew families who were as poor as we were.
I remember he said, ‘I will get more money from doing this measly pipe than your dad earns for a week in the factory
“We went without food; never had any holidays; no new clothes, it would always be second-hand clothes; and no luxuries.
“We wouldn’t go for days without food but there were times when we only ate one meal a day and we only had that because we earned money to buy potatoes.”
Charlie and his two brothers “did everything and anything” to make money - including running errands, cleaning cars, milk runs and wash bag deliveries.
He says: “Looking back it was the best thing that ever happened to me. I wouldn’t be where I am today if I hadn’t learned that work ethic.
“Other people did odd jobs, but mine would be non-stop."
Instead, he was pleased to escape the "doom and gloom" where he felt he was being "ripped off".
"Whether it's with shopping or inheritance tax of leaving the UK, they come up with way to make you pay twice," he said.
"It's like being in a restaurant, you pay your bill and all of a sudden as you're leaving the waiter says to you you've got to pay again."
Charlie added one of his biggest motivations for leaving was to avoid Chancellor Rachel Reeves' inheritance tax hikes.
This has motivated him to completely sell up in the UK as he's "not prepared to pay tax twice" on his assets.
In last year's Autumn budget, Reeves announced £40 billion worth of tax hikes.
This included a huge change to inheritance tax to close loopholes created by the previous government by bringing pensions into inheritance tax from April 2027.
Making an empire
Charlie based his business on “everything that was wrong with the plumbing industry,” which he says “had a very bad name” at the time, and doing the complete opposite.
He says: “I always say our success didn’t come from doing anything complicated, it wasn’t that Pimlico Plumbers was so good, it was that all the others were so bad.
“People would complain that a plumber didn’t turn up, showed-up in a dirty old van, didn’t clean up after, wasn’t transparent and wouldn’t finish the job.
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“Plumbers were always ‘breaking their arms or legs’ or their vans were ‘breaking down’. But it was all nonsense, they didn't show up because they had a better-paying job up the road.
“So I thought, ‘Let’s do the opposite - turn up early, dress smart instead of scruffy and things like that,' it wasn’t complicated.
“I’d tell anyone wanting to start a business now to come up with 20 things you don’t like about your industry and do the opposite, you’ll be on to a winner.
“The plumbing industry had a very bad name and I set out to change that. We definitely did, Pimlico Plumbers changed the industry, there’s no two ways about it.”
First million
Charlie’s first million came in the early 1990s, around the time his business nearly went bust due to banks calling in an £80,000 overdraft from unpaid jobs and £250,000 in loans taken out to buy a business premises.
“We nearly went bust, everything went wrong,” he said. “I owed lots of money and had the liquidators in because I wasn’t strong enough in the business.
“I was allowing people credit, allowing plumbers to take liberties and needed to toughen up. I knew if I didn’t get it right I’d lose my house and company.
“I changed my accounts, the workforce, everyone involved and started demanding payment upon completion, which some doubted would work.
“I’ve never had an overdraft again, my take on bankers is that they are crooks in suits. No matter what you tell them they will take their money back.
“My bookkeeper said at the time, ‘If you get through this you’ll come out the other side a lot better.’ The prediction was correct."
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Pimlico Plumbers continued from strength to strength and by 2009, Charlie was able to pay himself a £1million bonus. One year later, he appeared on Channel 4’s The Secret Millionaire.
He became known as Britain’s first millionaire plumber and later “Britain’s richest plumber” due to his increasing fortunes.
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