My mum tried to kill me & I grew up in care – but now I’m worth £500 MILLION and my son, 7, has a Ferrari
TYCOON Peter Waddell loves telling the tale of how Tom Cruise dropped by in his helicopter and offered to buy his £40million, 56-room mansion set in 49 acres.
He says: “I paid £10million for it and spent millions upon millions of my hard-earned money on it. His agent asked if it was for sale. I said it wasn’t.”
In fact, 58-year-old Peter loves his dream home so much he has had an identikit mansion built on Spain’s billionaire’s row in Puerto Banus, where his neighbours are Novak Djokovic and Simon Cowell.
He also owns 20 supercars worth well over £3million — with their prestige number plates worth another million.
And he recently paid £390,000 for a petrol-powered Rolls-Royce Wraith, forgetting he had also ordered a £500,000 electric Roller.
When not driving around in one of his supercars, he flies his own £4million Airbus EC130 helicopter with the call sign PJWW.
Not bad for a lad whose mother had tried to kill him when he was just four and who grew up in a Scottish children’s home.
Peter, who is deaf and dyslexic, left council care at 16 and after a year of living rough on the streets of Glasgow, moved to London aged 17.
After starting his working life as a taxi driver, he went on to build Big Motoring World, Britain’s biggest second-hand car empire, selling 60,000 motors a year.
Today he is worth more than £500million after branching out into property and haulage.
Secure unit
He recently gave his younger son, Peter Junior, seven, a classic 24-year-old Ferrari 575 worth £130,000, which they drive around the estate in.
The incredible life of wealth is a far cry from his own bleak childhood. Sitting in the huge kitchen of Holwood House, his historic mansion near Bromley in South London — a short helicopter hop from Biggin Hill airport, and where the 2011 kids’ film Horrid Henry: The Movie was shot — Peter says: “I haven’t spoken to my mother in probably 50 years.”
When I ask about her attack on him, and whether she is still living, he says: “I haven’t got a clue. Not interested. I think my mother had a nervous breakdown.
“She scarred my whole body, attempted to cut my hands off and smashed my head.
My best friend saw his father cut off his mother’s head. A girl was sold to a paedophile ring when she was five
Peter Waddell on his time in care
“I remember being in hospital for months. I was probably four or five.”
Peter ended up at a children’s home in Fairlie, North Ayrshire, run by Scottish charity Quarriers.
He was housed in the home’s secure unit with other child victims of violence, and recalls: “My best friend saw his father cut off his mother’s head. A girl was sold to a paedophile ring when she was five.
“So these people, like me, were mostly disturbed. We were different, we were isolated in the home. It was only at about the age of 12 that I actually got out to go to school.”
Children from the care home were taught at nearby Largs Academy, and Peter says: “The other children at the school would have their big, lovely pencil cases. In the home, we didn’t have money for pencil cases.
“The teacher would say, ‘Write down what you did with your parents for the summer holidays’.
“I’d sit there and just watch. We didn’t have that sort of life. So you grow up thinking, ‘Why am I different from anybody else? Why did my mother not love me? Why did my mother not care? What have I done?’
“That’s the sad thing about growing up in a home. I’m dyslexic, can’t write, can’t spell, and I’m deaf as a rock. You can’t change the past but you can change the future — so that’s what I did.”
After his stint of living rough in Glasgow, he grabbed his chance to hit the road and seek his fortune.
It came one night when the driver of an overnight bus left the door open and Peter sneaked on board and hid behind a pile of suitcases.
He says: “I slept in the warmth of the bus and ended up down Victoria Bus Station in London.”
Getting settled in, he found work at a nearby minicab office which was offering to train new drivers.
Peter recalls: “The first job I got, the man said, ‘Can you take me to Pall Mall?’ And I said, ‘If you show me the way, I’ll take you’. It took me about 35 minutes to get there and four hours to find my way back.”
As well as cab driving, Peter started selling a few cars from the roadside. He would buy a car at auction with his credit card, sell it by the end of the month to avoid paying interest, and keep the profit.
His big break came when he applied to buy his council flat in Catford, South London, under the Government’s right-to-buy scheme.
Because he had been in local authority care from the age of four, the council agreed to give him the full discount under the scheme.
Peter says: “I was still only 22 but I’d been in a council home for 17 years. I bought the flat for something ridiculous, like 20 grand.”
Having a mortgage and equity in the flat meant he could borrow a few thousand pounds to buy more cars.
He says: “I used to go to the auction on a red No 36 bus. I’d buy a car and bring it home. I had a deal with the guy at the BP garage.
“I’d get a coffee and McDonald’s for him and he let me park underneath the lights to polish a profit into the car.
“Then I’d take a picture with a Polaroid camera and sell the car in Auto Trader magazine.”
‘Chance to grow’
His ambition was to sell 15 cars a month. But over the years the business, which specialised in high-mileage BMWs, expanded until it was selling 5,000 second-hand vehicles a month from sale rooms all over the south of England.
All the cars, bought from auctions, were checked and prepped for sale at a £10million former diesel engine factory in Peterborough, Cambs.
My life was about taking young people and giving them a chance to grow, because I never had that chance. I was totally dyslexic, couldn’t write, and suffered from disability
Peter on giving people a chance to get on in life
The company employed 1,400 workers, most of whom Peter knew by name, and he says: “I worked from four in the morning until midnight, seven days a week./qu
“My life is not all about being a CEO sitting on a chair in an office.
“That wasn’t me. If a job needed doing, I’d do it. I even painted the gates at our prep centre.
“I used to land in my helicopter and I’d take all the staff up to give them an experience of their lives.
“We built our business on being a family.
“My life was about taking young people and giving them a chance to grow, because I never had that chance. I was totally dyslexic, couldn’t write, and suffered from disability.”
He may be dyslexic but his ability to read a balance sheet and see an opportunity made him mega-rich. His property empire also includes an industrial estate, luxury flats and car showrooms.
When one of his tenants — a haulage firm in Dover — could not pay the rent because it was in trouble, he bought the company.
In three months he turned around the business — renamed Big Transport — and doubled the fleet to 60 trucks.
Peter’s first marriage failed, then 14 years ago he met his current partner Gabby, 40, in a newsagent’s shop in Portsmouth.
They now divide their time between their British mansion and the nine-bedroom home in Spain.
Like Peter, Holwood House also has an interesting history as the site of the former home of Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger.
It was there, in 1787, under an oak tree in the sprawling grounds, that Pitt and campaigner William Wilberforce vowed to outlaw slavery.
And Peter is also fighting the biggest battle of his life.
In 2022 he sold a third of Big Motoring World to a private equity firm which ousted him after misconduct allegations including bullying and using racist language.
Peter strenuously denies the claims and the case will be heard in the High Court in early 2026.
He says: “I’m deaf and I speak loudly but I’m not a bully, nor am I a racist.
“I’ve been a fighter all my life and I’m going to fight this latest battle — one billion per cent.”