Charlie Mullins, known as the ‘world’s richest plumber’ (Image: Getty)
He is known as ‘the world’s richest plumber’, having built a business worth £140m when he sold it in 2021. Since then, he says he has spent £100m in three years on luxuries including cars worth nearly £500,000 each and a London penthouse worth £11m, where Tom Jones is a neighbour.
Welcome to the world of Charlie Mullins, founder of Pimlico Plumbers, who says he has been “celebrating ever since” he sold the business he started in his basement before turning it into what became easily Britain’s highest profile plumbing firm.
Recalling the moment he realised the extraordinary sum of money was transferred to him, he told The Sun: “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.”
Charlie and partner Rachel Leavesley at The Grosvenor House Hotel in London (Image: Getty)
Charlie says that although he has made investments, he has mainly spent his vast fortune on “living the good life”. He has bought villas in Marbella, as well as building one, has bought property in Dubai and spends a lot of time in America. Whenever he visits any of these places, he always fly first-class.
One of his favourite places to stay is the “top dollar” Marbella Club hotel in Spain, a favourite destination for the likes of 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,” says Charlie.
Earlier this year, Reform UK supporter Charlie, now 72, revealed he had moved permanently to Marbella, claiming it was because of the Labour government’s victory in the general election. He told MailOnline in January: “I’m very pleased to have moved – I left as soon as the election result was announced. Labour are socialists so I was expecting bad things but it’s actually a lot worse than I feared.
‘I knew capital gains and inheritance tax could go up, but I wasn’t expecting a national insurance increase too. It’s probably the worst blow to entrepreneurs that I’ve seen over my whole life in business.”
Charlie was opposed to Brexit and posed for photographers alongside pro-EU supporters in London in 2016 (Image: Getty)
Charlie founded Pimlico Plumbers in 1979 and says he has seen “more than £200million go through my hands” during his lifetime. His single biggest purchase is his £11m penthouse on the banks of the Thames in London, where he chats to Tom Jones over the balcony and enjoys views of the MI6 headquarters, Houses of Parliament, London Eye and Westminster Cathedral.
“I’ve had 10 apartments along the river and this one is head and shoulders above them all. I’ve never seen quality workmanship like it,” he said of his apartment.
“I have homes in Spain and Hutton Mount in Essex, but this is a different class. There’s no place like London. It’s beyond a dream to own an apartment here.”
He has also spent millions on cars, including his most recent purchase of a Rolls Royce Jeep that cost £450,000, and watches, and gets a new suit made for him every month by Savile Row tailors. He also says he donates £1m to charity every year.
One of Charlie’s trademark luxury cars with personalised number plate (Image: Getty)
Charlie with Lisa Snowdon, Brendan Cole and Johnny Vaughan in 2008 (Image: Getty)
But he wasn’t born rich and says he was brought up “very poor” in London’s Rockingham council estate where he “never knew anyone poorer than us”.
He told The Sun: “I couldn’t wait to get out of the council estate, it was quite rough, absolutely disgusting and had rubbish everywhere. 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.”
But he was set on his path by another plumber, Bill Ellis, who took him under his wing. Charlie skipped school to work with Bill and learn the trade, as well as lessons in business and life, before enrolling on a plumbing apprenticeship, which he supplemented by working as a barman and cleaner. As a result, he launched Pimlico Plumbers aged 25 and founded it on the principle that they would do well what other plumbers were doing badly, particularly in terms of reliability.
Away from business, Charlie has four children and got engaged to current partner, Rachel ‘RaRa’ Leavesley in 2022. He has four children.