Paul Newey loves playing poker. So much so that he is said to have paid £600,000 for a seat at the World Series of Poker event in Las Vegas.

The top prize was £11.5 million, which Paul Newey didn’t win. But his boat had already come in. That happened in 2006 when he sold Ocean Finance – the Tamworth debt consolidation business he founded in 1991 – for £200 million.

In recent times Ocean Finance hasn’t been doing so well. The company was hit with a £12 million provision for the mis-selling of payment protection insurance and the company has faced several years of losses. So Paul Newey probably feels he got out at the right time.

He sold Ocean Finance to American General, a subsidiary of US insurance giant AIG. He stayed on as chief executive but stood down in 2009.

Paul Newey, aged 45, enjoys a flutter and famously came close to breaking the bank at Star City Casino in Birmingham when he won £3 million and forced owner Stanley Leisure to issue a profit warning, wiping 12 per cent off its share value.

Luck has been something which has followed Paul Newey since he lost his job back in 1991 when his employer went bust. With a business partner and just £2,500 he set up Ocean Finance – based on the Centurion Business Park in Tamworth – and the rest is history.

Paul Newey lives in a seven-bedroom Regency style home in Sutton Coldfield.

London-based New Wave ventures, which he set up in 2010 with ex-Lloyds managing director Tim Bullock, invests in businesses with growth potential. He is chairman of the company.

Investments include Aeristech, a Kenilworth-based engine turbo-charger company, medical logistics firm Adiposet and Cambridge Scientific Innovations Ltd, a food and pharmaceutical product testing company.