I’m UK’s richest plumber… how I went from scrimping to afford potatoes to blowing £100m on Dubai mansions and 7* hotels
SEVEN-star hotel breaks costing £125,000 a time, half-a-million-pound high-end cars and a luxury London penthouse with Tom Jones for a neighbour.
Those are just some of the spoils of Britain’s richest plumber Charlie Mullins, who says he has splurged a staggering £100million in just three years.
The London-born tradesman’s enormous fortune came from Pimlico Plumbers, which he sold for £140million back in 2021 and has been “celebrating ever since”.
Things weren’t always so luxurious for Charlie, who grew up on an “absolutely disgusting”, rubbish-strewn council estate and regularly ate just one meal a day.
Now the 71-year-old, who counts Simon Cowell and Dame Joan Collins as pals, reveals all about his spending in The Sun’s series Money Talks, where we talk to celebrities and business tycoons about their financial highs and lows.
Charlie paid himself a whopping £6million a year before selling his shares in Pimlico Plumbers and recalls the staggering moment he received the giant sum after months of negotiations.
He says: “My lawyer rang up early one money and said, ‘The money is in your account,’ I said ‘F***ing hell, I can’t believe it’. I think I’ve been celebrating for three years since.
“I think I’ve got rid of about £100million, I don’t find that difficult to say. I’m pleased to have done that, I’d never want to be the richest man in the graveyard.
“People say you can’t spend that much money but I have. I’ve made investments but I’ve mainly been living the good life.
“I’ve bought villas in Marbella and am building a villa too, I’m buying property in Dubai and have spent a lot of time in America. I always fly first-class.
“I regularly stay in the Marbella Club, it’s top dollar money to be there because it’s where all the filmstars used to go – the Beckhams, Joan Collins, Sophia Loren.
“That can easily cost £100,000 for a holiday and then I also stay in the seven-star hotel Al Burj Arab in Dubai several times a year, where the bill easily gets up to £125,000.”
Self-made man Charlie, who founded Pimlico Plumbers in 1979, claims he has had “more than £200million go through my hands” during his lifetime, and seldomly has held back on spending it.
His biggest purchase was an £11million ultra-high-end penthouse overlooking the River Thames, where he boasts Sir Tom Jones as a neighbour and regularly speaks to the Sexbomb hitmaker over the balcony.
Charlie’s also forked out a fortune on dream cars ranging from BMWs to Bentleys and most recently bought a Rolls Royce Jeep that cost £450,000 – the majority of them had personalised number plates.
He’s invested in antique watches “worth millions of pounds” and has a new suit every month from high-end Savile Row tailors, which he pairs with £2,000 shoes. He also donates £1million to charity each year.
“I’m definitely a spender,” he admits with a laugh. “But I think it makes you more inclined to work harder because you want better things in life.
“There’s nothing wrong with wanting to get a Rolls Royce or a Ferrari, nice clothes, jewellery or a big mansion.
“I never imagined I’d be in a position to pay thousands for a pair of shoes but I get so much pleasure out of it, I think it’s because I always had second-hand pairs and plimsolls as a kid.
“People knock the material things but if it inspires you there’s nothing wrong with it, those who turn their noses up often aren’t going anywhere. Money always inspired me and look at what I achieved.”
‘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.
“You didn’t make a fortune, maybe five shillings a day or 10 shillings at a weekend, but it taught me to get anywhere in life you have to work hard.”
To top up his parents’ coffers, Charlie regularly skipped classes but says he “couldn’t wait to leave” education to get out into the working world.
He credits his success with meeting local plumber Bill Ellis, who told him: “Don’t go to school and I’ll show you how to make real money, you’ll earn and learn more than you will at school.”
Charlie bunked off to work with the flashy tradesman, who paid him “two bob a day, around 10 pence, and lunch”.
“I was inspired by Bill,” he said. “He was the only person in the area with money, a car, a motorbike, nice clothes and jewellery, who went on holidays.
“He had everything you could have wanted and was very well off and everyone loved him, so I just copied what he had done.”
Quickfire Questions
What’s your favourite purchase?
That has to be my £11million penthouse apartment in London on the River Thames My neighbour is Tom Jones, the views are amazing and it’s the best place I’ve ever lived in my life. It’s one of those dream residences, it has so much going for it – like views of The Shard, the Houses of Parliament, London Eye… it’s amazing.
What do you think is a rip-off?
I’m totally against all of the charges for driving your vehicle in London including the clean air charges. It’s a total rip-off and robbing hard-working tradespeople especially. I think it’s wrong and it’s ruining businesses.
Have you ever lent money?
I’m easygoing with money and when I have lent money I’ve known I’m not always going to get it back. So what I’ll say to some is ‘Don’t give me the money back, put it in the bank’. That way they aren’t going to ask for more from you. You think you’re helping people by lending money to them but you can create more problems.
Do you have a pension?
I closed mine down a long time ago because I believe they are a rip-off and too many people lose money from them. The best pension you can have is one you make yourself – whether that’s in brick and mortar, gold, antiques, jewellery or something else, it’s much better than a typical pension.
Do you prefer cash or card?
We’re becoming a cash-less society but I totally disagree with that. I prefer cash all day long, you’re more in control of what you spend and have better bargaining power.
Does money motivate you?
(Laughs) Undoubtedly. When you come from nothing and have nothing making money becomes a motivation. It opens so many doors and gives you a better life, but it’s up to you to go and get it.
Will you retire?
It will never happen for me. I will be spending my time between Spain, Dubai and America but I’ll never retire. I’m looking at opening a trade school and have We Fix launching in October, which I’ll be involved with. I don’t see the point in letting all of my decades of knowledge going to waste.
Charlie, who left school at 15 without qualifications, soaked up Bill’s teachings like a sponge including “priceless lessons” such as “turning up on time and being tidy, polite and respectful” to customers.
He added: “I remember one particular job, a pipe had burst in a posh place in Hampstead or Primrose Hill, we fixed the leak in no time and it wasn’t a big job, but the people there idolised him because he showed up.
“They were giving him tips, dinner and telling him, ‘Oh, we’re so grateful you came’. I remember he said, ‘I will get more money from doing this measly pipe than your dad earns for a week in the factory.
“He wasn’t saying it to belittle my family but just to explain how it works, I could earn £10 a week in a factory or make the same from just one job.”
Charlie enrolled in a four-year plumbing apprenticeship, which paid “so little” that he had to take gigs as an overnight cleaner and pulling pints at his aunt’s pub.
By the age of 25, after being self-employed and struggling to “find anyone who was bringing more to the table than me” in partnerships, he launched Pimlico Plumbers.
He said: “I always wanted to work longer hours, they wanted to go home.
“I wanted more money, they were happy with the money they had; it all made me realise why am I subsiding them?”
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.
“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 didn’t want to come out of Pimlico in a box and realised being offered a certain amount of money for a business I started from scratch was ‘the ultimate’
Charlie
“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.”
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.
Selling up
Away from business, twice divorced Charlie, who has four children, got engaged to Rachel ‘RaRa’ Leavesley in 2022.
He met the singer, who used to be a Katy Perry tribute act and is 38 years his junior, on a beach in Marbella, Spain.
Previously, Charlie told the Mail: “I have a lovely partner and she has made my life better and better. She’s such a natural, beautiful lady.”
Over the years, he received a number of offers to buy out his 90 per cent share in Pimlico Plumbers – but it wasn’t until after the pandemic that it finally felt the right time to sell-up.
He said: “I’d had it for 41 years, two marriages and various things, wherever there is success something else has to give.
“Be it your health, your friendships, your family, your marriages, something goes because you put some much into it.
“I didn’t want to come out of Pimlico in a box and realised being offered a certain amount of money for a business I started from scratch was ‘the ultimate.’”
Why should I wipe out 40 years of knowledge when I can put it to use again?
Charlie
The year prior, during the pandemic, was Charlie’s most successful year. He earned a £6million in dividends and the business grew between 15 and 20 per cent.
He says the reason behind the surge was an investment of £100,000 in masks, gloves, thermometers, hand sanitisers and testing kits.
It ensured customers felt safe letting his plumbers into their homes during the pandemic and due to the lockdowns, which meant people spent more time at home than before, there were an increasing number of fixes needed.
While Charlie doesn’t regret selling his business, he believes the company “would have been worth so much more” with him at the helm.
As part of the £145million deal to sell it to US firm Neighborly, he was prohibited from launching a rival business for three years.
That expires at the end of September and Charlie has big plans. He’s launching We Fix, which will rival his former firm.
“When I first sold Pimlico I wanted them to do 10 times better than me and believed they would, but they are not and now I have this opportunity to go into the business again,” he says.
“Why should I wipe out 40 years of knowledge when I can put it to use again? I’m not on the payroll, it’s in the family trust, so I can’t have any money from it but I’m happy with that.”
Charlie tells us his proudest achievement, bar selling his business for a colossal sum, was receiving his OBE from the-then Prince Charles back in 2015.
He claims “not a day goes by” without him being told he’s inspired someone, which he believes, in part, is due to his candidness regarding his spending.
Charlie adds: “I’ve been involved with apprentices from the Prince’s Trust and the first questions they ask are: ‘Do you really drive a Bentley?’ and ‘Do you really earn a million pounds?’
“There’s nothing wrong with wanting material things. It can motivate you to want more and want to work harder than others for it.”
To follow in Charlie’s footsteps, his advice is simple: “The first thing you need to do is get a job, which is your starting point and you can build from there.
“The other thing is if you learn a trade you’ll never be out of work and earn loads of money.
“I was told that 60 years ago and I still tell people it now. It’s more true today than ever, take it from me.”