I pay £600 a month to park all my cars on the street – I’ve found a clever hack

A PETROLHEAD is so obsessed with buying classic cars that he has had to beg his neighbours to let him park them on their drives.

Bugsy Ali, 47, and brother Shoukat, 52, have amassed dozens of luxury motors in Birmingham, West Mids.

4

4

4

And the car addicts’ haul of Rolls Royces, Bentleys and Porches is so vast that they have had to ask locals to offer up their driveways in Alum Rock, one of the UK’s most deprived areas.

The collection includes touring limos claimed to be linked to the Royal Family, a 1950s Bentley and a rare 1961 Mercedes 600 Pullman.

Dad-of-two Bugsy said: “This is the ghetto round here. It’s the last place you’d expect to see Maseratis and Porsche GTRs.

“We are just totally addicted to cars. We can’t go to sleep without buying one.

“We were paying out £600 a month in road tax at one point to keep them parked on the street.

“We’ve had to ask the neighbours to let us park them on the driveways.

“They love to help us –  it’s nice for them to have a Bentley on the driveway, isn’t it?

“We’ve taken the neighbours out for a spin to say thank you. One of them turned 80 recently so we took him and his missus to the pub in the Rolls.

“He said it was the best birthday present he’d ever had.”

Bugsy started wheeling and dealing in motors in his teens and now he and his brother buy the motors, many of which have issues with rust or are no longer wanted by their super-rich owners, at knock-down prices.

The classic cars are stored around the front and back of Bugsy’s terraced home, across the street and in neighbour’s driveways.

Bugsy, who owns a number of rental properties in Birmingham, also has tenants sign contracts allowing him to park his motors there.

He added: “We’ve got Porsche Speedsters, a collection of Mercedes, a Maserati – you name it.

“We’ve just bought two Rolls Royces Silver Spirit touring limousines that apparently belonged to the Royal Family. We spent £70,000 on them but they’re probably worth more than £200,000.”

“We just can’t stop.”

The fleet of cars are parked in one of Birmingham’s most crime-ridden areas. Ward End was ranked the 18th most deprived community in the city in 2019, and among the top 200 in the UK.

Bugsy said: “I’m not worried about them being stolen.

“This is my area. I’ve lived here all my life. I’ve had people from out of town try their luck but all the neighbours are watching out for me.

“It’s a close-knit community. People know not to mess with us.”

Shoukat added: “We’re working men – we’re not millionaires.  We don’t have money in the bank, we just sell and buy cars.

“We are just three brothers who love cars. If I’ve got £20,000 from a car sale then I can’t sleep until I’ve bought another one.”

4