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How rich is Lord Alan Sugar? The Apprentice star's wealth

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In the latest in our series on celebrity money, we look at how Lord Sugar, star of The Apprentice, built his empire and what he's worth today.

Sugar rush: He has amassed a fortune through hard graft

Baron Sugar of Clapton could be a character out of a child's storybook.

Something along the lines of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or the Mister Men series perhaps?

There is certainly a fairy tale quality to the former Alan now Lord Sugar's rags to riches story.

He may be more frog than prince to many observers but the electronics-turned-property entrepreneur, television star and professional Mr Grumpy, certainly made it big through hard graft.

He famously started out with just £100 in 1967, selling aerials out of the back of a van and the journey to success and his current £730m wealth is charted in minute detail in his recently-published 600-page autobiography What You See is What You Get.

Born in to a poor Jewish family in 1947, where his dad struggled to make a living on just £13 a week as a tailor, Sugar is now ranked 85th on the Sunday Times 2010 Rich List.

His wheeler dealing today is carried out through his private company Amshold - the AMS bit stands for Alan Michael Sugar - which has interests in property trading, aircraft chartering and management services. He also has a share in computer firm Viglen.

Married life: Pictured here with his wife Ann

Money is not what drives him, says Sugar, who is married with two sons (who work for the business) and a daughter (who used to). 'Money is irrelevant,' he told the Sun newspaper recently, adding 'Once you've made a million it doesn't matter how many you've got.'

Sugar has plenty for himself so donates his BBC fee for presenting the ratings hit The Apprentice to Great Ormond Street Hospital and did the same when he featured in adverts for National Savings and Investments.

The 63-year old, who was born and brought up in an East End housing estate but now divides his time between various luxury multi-million pound homes in Chigwell in Essex to Spain and Boca Raton, Florida, also routinely returns (or at least attempts to return) his annual Winter Fuel Allowance, a £200 cash sum handed out by the state to the over 60s.

While television and the catchphrase 'You're fired' made him a star in the noughties, his heyday was arguably during the 1980s Thatcher years.

In that period he doubled profits each year at his infamous electronics firm Amstrad and by 1986 had created a company worth £1.2bn.

Sir Alan: He was made a Labour peer in July 2009

Despite his meteoric rise while the Conservatives were in power, Sugar's political allegiances switched elsewhere when Tony Blair came to power in 1997: he has donated to the Labour party several times since then, including £400,000 before the 2010 General Election. He was also made a Labour peer in July 2009.

Sugar's finances have not always been on an upward curve. Amshold saw profits plummet in 2008-09 from £71.1m to just £4.3m, although they revived the following year, doubling to £8.3m.

Amstrad, the brand that made Sugar rich and famous, went on a rapid decline in the 1990s, losing millions when it hit technical and reliability problems with its products. Sugar finally sold the company to BSkyB for £125m in 2007, a tenth of its glory days' value.

Nevertheless, thanks largely to his recent success with property ventures, Sugar is still enjoying the perks of prosperity.

Apart from his homes, he owns at least two private jets worth a total of £33.5m, according to the Daily Mail. And he has a fleet of expensive cars that include a Land Rover, Bentley, Ferrari and a Rolls Royce Phantom, which regularly features in The Apprentice.

You're fired!: The Apprentice has made him a TV star in the noughties

Sugar took it upon himself to sign a lucrative but undisclosed deal with Pan Macmillan to write his autobiography - without using an agent.

Published late last year the book stormed up the best-seller lists and was a runner-up to the 2010 best-seller Jamie Oliver's 30 Minute Meals.

An enthusiastic convert to Twitter, Sugar has given his book and the Apprentice plenty of plugs through the social network.

One of Sugar's big loves is football but he regrets much of his 10-year rocky involvement with Tottenham Hotspur, which he bought in 1991.

Sugar became chairman and made Terry Venables chief executive but pair quickly fell out, which led to a battle in the courts. Sugar was condemned by many loyal Venables' supporters and even received death threats.

After a decade, Sugar called time and decided to sell his majority stake, netting himself £22m in 2001 and then a further £25m when he offloaded the remainder in 2007. He told the Times newspaper in 2009 that his time with Tottenham was 'a waste of my life'.

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