10-2 Rich Kids

Tom Hartley

The thoughts of his contemporaries are of football, computer games and the latest designer sneakers.  Yet Tom Hartley, who struck his first deal selling a Porsche when he was 11, has just become Britain’s youngest self-made millionaire at the age of 14.

Hartley has a private chauffeur, mobile phone, and wardrobe of designer suits, and in the past year alone he has been responsible for clinching deals worth nearly $20 million for his father’s luxury used-car business.

Hartley left school at 11 and since then has been educated partly by private tutors, but mostly by the so-called ‘university of life’.  ‘I am serving an apprenticeship and I learn something every day,’ he said.  He admits it’s not for him but he certainly doesn’t criticize a conventional education for others.  ‘If someone wants to be a lawyer or a doctor, they should take the normal exams.  But for what I want to do, school doesn’t suit me,’ he said.

His father said of Tom, ‘He has been talking with customers on the phone since he was 12 and the thing which really gives him the edge is his ability to know when to close the deal. Tom is a level-headed young man who can keep his cool in all sorts of circumstances.  Actually, he’s really more like a partner which is why I got him a Ferrari - he’d earned it.’

Simon Cunliffe-Lister

At the age of 15, Simon has been left a $17 million estate with a manor house, priceless antiques - and a butler.  All inherited from a distant bachelor cousin.

Simon, who plays the saxophone in a band called Shagwagg, surveyed his new domain yesterday: ‘The house would be perfect for a rave - but I suppose that’s out of the question.’

Simon will be responsible for the 380-year-old Burton Agnes Hall, near Bridlington, Humberside, England.  Paintings by Renoir and Gauguin, which hang from its oak-panelled walls, and collections of bronzes, porcelain and furniture attract 30,000 visitors a year.  However, Simon’s untidy bedroom at his current home is covered in pictures of pop stars.

Simon is a pupil at one of the most famous schools in the country, Winchester, which costs a hefty $30,000 a year.  His long-term ambition is to become an engineer after completing an appropriate university course.  In the short term though he is planning to show his girlfriend, Helen, 15, round the house and its 42 acres.  He added: ‘I’ve been told to keep an eye out for gold diggers and I suppose most women would be impressed by all this but I told Helen what to expect and she wasn’t overawed at all which is great.  Actually, the people at school have teased me quite a bit.  They keep asking if I can lend them $10 million!

Tracey Makin

England’s National Lottery’s youngest winner confessed yesterday that she would have been delighted with a mere $50.  16-year old Tracey Makin thought she would be collecting that modest windfall after matching four numbers in Saturday’s draw and it was only the next day, as she was checking her numbers again, that the student realized she had picked them all -  and a win of more than $2 million.  

Earlier her mother said Tracey seemed to be taking enormous win in her stride.  ‘She is being very cool about it, but obviously she is ecstatic,’ she said.  ‘I don’t know how she is managing to study for her exams, but she is and she’ll be taking her exams in the summer, money or no money.’

Tracey chose her numbers from a combination of friends’ birthdays.  ‘I probably will continue playing the lottery although I was told lightning never strikes twice in the same place,’ she laughed.  It’s slowly sinking in but I still haven’t really had the chance to think properly about what I’m going to do with the money.’

Karl Crompton

What do you give the man who has everything?  Well, in the case of Karl Crompton, something to do wouldn’t go amiss.  Amazingly, just a fortnight after scooping nearly $11 million on the lottery, the 23-year-old is, to put it bluntly, becoming bored out of his brain.

Having become one of the richest young men in Britain, you might expect him to be drinking champagne, jet-setting around the Caribbean, or out on the town clubbing to his heart’s content every night.  Instead, the former electrical store worker dines on fish and chips at home, spends his evenings watching videos and goes out motorcycling with his mates.

Yesterday, unshaven and facing another dreary day of riches beyond the dreams of avarice, Karl admitted: ‘I hate sitting around doing nothing.  When I was at work it could be repetitive, but at least I kept meeting different people.’

‘It’s hard to comprehend how much money I’ve got and when I actually stop and think about it, to be honest, it’s too much and I haven’t got a clue what to do with it.  All I’ve ever wanted is a nice bike, a nice car, and a nice house - and it’s hard to know what else to get.  I suppose I’ll buy a house at some stage, but I’ve lived at home all my life and don’t see why I should move out now.’