An entrepreneur who recently splashed out a record-breaking £2 million for a personalised registration plate for his wife’s Ferrari - is planning a major expansion of his property holdings in Kent.

Peter Waddell is best known for launching the nationwide Big Motoring World chain in the county. Now focused on other business interests - he left the motor firm last year - he has no less ambition.

His latest project is the three-storey £8.5 million flagship apartments development transforming an ugly former tax office in St George’s Place, in Canterbury.

Other major holdings in the county include his Big Offices office and warehouse complex in Poulton Close, Dover, acquired in 2018 and since upgraded.

And he is hunting a headquarters site near Maidstone for his newly created Big Transport haulage firm, aiming to grow it into “the next Eddie Stobart”.

The businessman, 58, was born in Scotland and grew up in a children’s home there. Hard of hearing and dyslexic, he lived rough for a year at 16, then worked as a cab driver before starting to sell cars on the side after moving to London and then Kent.

In 1986, he founded Bapchild Motoring World with just 20 cars on display. It evolved into Big Motoring World, a multi-million pound nationwide enterprise.

Now a multi-millionaire, with a personal fortune of around £500m, he owns a £4m helicopter and lives in a 56-room Bromley mansion once owned by former Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger.

He recently bought both his wife - and his seven-year-old son - a Ferrari each. He then splashed out an eye-watering £2m on the personalised registration plate for his wife’s car of VIP1 - which cost four times more than the car it adorns. The plate had previously been owned by Pope John Paul II (it was put on the Popemobile during a visit to Ireland) and ex-Chelsea owner, the billionaire Roman Abramovich.

He agrees that it’s all a long way from his humble roots in Scotland:

He explained: “Kent’s been good to me and continues to be. I want to invest in more land and property here because I can see even more potential, driven by the county’s location near London and the continent, and by the new government’s pledge to build more homes.

“It wants 14,000 new homes built in Kent every year and Canterbury alone will have to deliver more than 1,200.

“I’m particularly proud of what we have created from the old tax office, Charter House. It was an eyesore left over from the 1970s, but we gutted and remade it into something special.

“We’ve already sold several apartments and I’m sure the rest will soon follow, because the development appeals in so many ways – relocation from London or other big cities, second home, or buy-to-let.”

Waddell was delighted to read praise for his new property flagship when vice-chairman of the Canterbury Society, John Walker, said: “Given they hadn’t many options with a building like that, I think they’ve done a pretty good job of softening its appearance.

“I think most people would agree it’s a damn sight better than what was there before.”

The site formerly housed 105 tax staff until closure in 2019 when, along with sister offices in Chatham, Gravesend, and Maidstone, HMRC centralised regional operations at Croydon.