Editing Randolph Turpin (section)

==Business dealings and bankruptcy==

Turpin bought The Great Ormes Head hotel with his business partner Leslie Salts.<ref name="birtley" /> The business never made money and It became a drain on his resources and was eventually sold at a loss in 1961, prior to Turpin being made bankrupt. He had been advised not to go ahead with the investment by his manager because he didn't believe that Salts was trustworthy.<ref name="birtley" />

Turpin had been free and easy with his money when in his prime. His attitude towards money was that it was for spending and that as he had earned it, he could spend it as he pleased. However, he took this philosophy too far and failed to keep track of his spending. In addition, he became a soft touch for anyone with a hard luck story and gave money away or lent it to people whom he considered to be his friends. Turpin once said "I am really a most illiterate man about money."<ref name="birtley" /> During the course of his career he is estimated from records kept by his manager, to have grossed in the region of £300,000. Which would be the equivalent of £7,000,000 in today's money when re-valued by the rate of inflation.<ref name="birtley" />

Prior to the second Robinson fight the system had been that an accountant dealt with the financial matters and his manager countersigned cheques for Randolph to withdraw money from his boxing earnings. However, after the second Robinson fight. He said that he wanted to take control of his own finances and his manager obliged. His manager said that he tried to impress upon Randolph that boxing was a short career and that he should put some money away, so that he would have something to fall back on when his career was over. However, he wouldn't take notice and continued spending money at a prodigious rate.<ref name="birtley" />

His problems with the Inland Revenue (HMRC) started after the second Robinson fight. He had been paid in cash for his share of the film rights for televising the fight. He didn’t declare this amount to HMRC and gave the money to one of his contacts for safe keeping. When he went back to the person to get his money, they wouldn’t give it to him. Furthermore, they reported him to HMRC for tax evasion. He couldn’t take legal action against the person to recover his money because he had not declared it as income for tax purposes.<ref name="bfi" />

As a result, in the years following the second Robinson fight. When he submitted his accounts and paid tax on the amount of earnings stated in them, less allowable expenses. The revenue started treating him as if he had understated his income and would issue an assessment based on what they estimated he had actually earned. Turpin kept appealing the assessments forwarded to him by the Inland Revenue (HMRC) in the belief that he had already paid all the tax due to them. HMRC assessed him on what they estimated he owed them over the period and sent him a tax bill for £100,000 for unpaid tax, penalty charges and interest, for the years where he had not made the additional tax payments. They said that he would have to appear at a commissioners hearing to finally settle the matter, as it had been dragging on for too many years.<ref name="bfi" />

Turpin had not kept good financial records and didn’t have receipts for a lot of the expenses that he had claimed against his income. Because he didn’t trust banks and paid for most things in cash. Meaning that there was no audit trail. He also claimed to have never received much of the money that he was said to have earned.<ref name="bfi" />

The tax bill was eventually reduced to an amount of £17,126 following an emotional appeal by his accountant Max Mitchell at the commissioners hearing, in which he said: "As time goes on the punching power of a boxer is enfeebled. The longer he pursues his profession his brain through constant pummelling is numbed. His eyes are affected, deafness overtakes him and in effect he is lucky that in the prime of his manhood he doesn't turn into a two-legged vegetable. And yet no allowance is given to a boxer by the Inland Revenue for the inevitable remorseless wasting away he undergoes because of the exacting nature of his profession. Is that fair? Therefore, I claim that my client's expenses should be allowed although estimated, in view of the tax advantages allowed to industrialists."<ref name="bfi" />

However, by this time Turpin only had assets worth £1,204 left, and was declared bankrupt for an amount of £15,922 in 1962.<ref name="bfi" /> Under the bankruptcy laws of that time Turpin was ordered to pay two pounds a week towards clearing his debt and was discharged from bankruptcy in 1965.<ref name="birtley" /><ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/boxing/8124417.stm</ref>

He had purchased a transport café in Leamington prior to being made bankrupt which was in his wife's name. The building was under threat of compulsory purchase by the council when he bought it. However, he still went ahead, despite people telling him not to do so. For the first year, the cafe was partly managed by Arthur Adams who had previously worked for six years as a barman at Turpin and Salts' Great Orme's Summit Hotel complex until he returned to Llandudno. Randolph put up a plaque behind the counter which said "That which seldom comes back to him who waits is the money he lends to his friends."<ref name="bfi" /> He worked at a scrapyard owned by his manager and then started to make a living as a wrestler.<ref name="bfi" /><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GNbJtkmDS4 | title=Turpin - Scrap Merchant | website=[[YouTube]] | date=21 July 2015 }}</ref>

He wrestled for a number of years but again made the mistake of not putting money aside to pay the tax bill on his wrestling earnings. At the bankruptcy hearing Turpin said that he didn't have anyone looking after his financial affairs (an accountant) in relation to his wrestling earnings and added that he had not received any claims from the revenue on his earnings. At that the assistant receiver said "You might be coming in here again then?" Turpin replied "No Sir, I don't think that is possible."<ref name="birtley" />

To begin with he was billed as a boxer versus a wrestler and was paid over £100 for this type of contest. However, as time went on the novelty of seeing a former world boxing champion in the wrestling ring wore off. He was forced to actually start wrestling and accept in the region of £25 for a contest.<ref name="birtley" />

Apparently, he was amateurish at wrestling but received many bookings on the back of his name. He had only received rudimentary instructions on how to wrestle from his friend George Kidd and he was only doing it because he needed the money. To earn sufficient money, he started going on wrestling tours throughout the country and to kill the boredom in the evenings would go out drinking with his new wrestling friends. At his bankruptcy hearing he had said "When you go out with the wrestling boys you can spend up to £10 to £15 a night."<ref name="birtley" /> This illustrated his attitude. He was in dire financial straits, but would still stand his round on a night out with his friends.

Turpin stated that he received more injuries from wrestling than he ever did during his boxing career. Particularly to his back and legs as a result of being thrown around the ring by men who were more skilful than him in the art of wrestling.<ref name="bfi" /><ref>https://wrestlingheritage.co.uk/randolph-turpin/</ref>