Millionaire Gavin goes undercover

UNDERCOVER entrepreneur Gavin Wheeldon

Entrepreneur Gavin Wheeldon is worth £20 million. A gifted salesman at 14, he set up his own company at 20 and now owns a hugely successful translation business.

But the Greenfield man, who owns Delph-based Applied Language Solutions, left behind his millionaire lifestyle to take part in the Channel 4 programme, “The Secret Millionaire”.

He returned to the faded North Wales resort of Rhyl, where he spent his childhood holidays, and searched for local people and groups he could help.

Gavin worked undercover, living on an allowance in a bed and breakfast in the town, which has declined in popularity with the advent of the cheap package holiday and where unemployment and poverty is rife.

He said: “I went into this programme with the belief that people want to work themselves out of their troubles, rather than expecting handouts, as we are sometimes led to believe in the media.

“I fully believe that if you are prepared to do something yourself, I am prepared to help you.”

After 10 days undercover, Gavin had to decide who most deserved a slice of his hard-earned fortune.

It is not Gavin’s first TV appearance. He has also featured on BBC 2’s “Dragons’ Den”, seeking backing from the panel of multi-millionaire entrepreneurs to expand his business.

He failed, but the success of Applied Language Solutions, which employs 40 people at its headquarters in Delph and has offices around the world, has gone on to prove Gavin right and the Dragons wrong.

Always entrepreneurial, Gavin, now 32, started work at an early age — with gardening and window cleaning jobs.

At 14 he was selling kitchens and, despite being underage, was kept on by the company because he was its best salesman.

By the age of 20 he had set up his first IT company and four years ago he started the translation business — despite not being able to speak any foreign languages.

Gavin’s mum, Denise, said: “My nickname for Gavin was our little Arthur Daley, my dad always said if he didn’t end up behind bars he’d end up making a fortune.”

Gavin did, in fact, end up making a fortune: his company is now worth more than £20 million.

l “The Secret Millionaire” will be broadcast on Channel 4 next Tuesday at 9pm.