How people's bank hero Dave Fishwick went from Burnley bus dealer to toast of Hollywood worth 500

Publish date: 2024-06-05

DAVE FISHWICK is not your typical banking guru.

He grew up in a house so ramshackle it had to be demolished, and he left school without any money or qualifications.

But the story of how the minibus dealer from Burnley rose from nothing to take on the high street banks attracted the interest of Hollywood bigwigs.

Piers Ashworth, one of the people behind blockbusters including Mission Impossible, was captivated by how Dave helped out struggling customers during the 2008 financial crisis by setting up a community bank.

Modest grafter Dave became a local hero after his enterprise supported needy businesses to the tune of £30million in loans — with profits going to charity.

But he reckons he was shunned by the authorities due to his background — and his vocal complaints about taxpayers having to bail out the banks to the tune of £137billion.

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“I say I have met so-and-so and my wife says, ‘Never mind that, there is cottage pie for your tea’. It grounds me.”

‘Never give up’

Down-to-earth Dave scrimped, saved and worked seven days a week to build up a multi-million pound empire. He now owns a helicopter, a couple of red Ferraris, a classic Aston Martin and a mansion in sprawling grounds.

But rather than getting rich from his foray into money-lending, every penny after “overheads” that he makes from the financial institution — which boasts the catchphrase “Bank on Dave” — goes to good causes including Help for Heroes and Marie Curie Cancer Care.

Dave’s attempts to set up the bank were at first thwarted by the powers-that-be, who he claims told him he had not gone to the right type of school and did not have appropriate parents.

The multi-millionaire says proudly: “The big banks dislike me with a passion”. But that could not stop him triumphing and overcoming his humble roots.

Born in Burnley to Tony and Christine, who both worked in a mill, his formative years were spent in a “two up, two down” which “only had an outside toilet”, in nearby Nelson.

Dave recalls: “We come from a very poor background. The house has been knocked down, it was so bad.”

He left school at the age of 16 with no qualifications” and started on a Youth Training Scheme as a builder.

This was “proper graft”, but not the young man’s passion. He says: “It was £27 a week YTS. I carried two buckets of cement, one in each hand, pebble dashing all day. I wanted to get into cars, but I had no money, not even enough for a gallon of petrol.

"But there’s always a way. You have to just think through it. It’s either go under it, over it, round it — there is always a way. You must never give up.

Dave’s way around his empty pockets was to ask all the local car dealerships if they were willing to let him have a part-exchange motor to spruce up. The deal was that he would give them the original price of the vehicle once he had sold it and keep any profit for himself.

One dealer agreed to the proposal and Dave made £27 on a £70 Vauxhall Cavalier. Soon he had his own garage in Nelson, where he met his wife Nicola nearly three decades ago.

Dave remembers: “Marrying my wife was my best decision, without a shadow of a doubt. She was a bio scientist. I didn’t even know what one of them was when I met her.

'It was seven days a week, every night'

“She is far smarter than I will ever be. She is far too good for me. She came along to my little car garage on Scotland Road in Nelson and she had a great big diesel battery.

"I got my jump leads on it and I could jump start every single car with it. I thought, ‘That will do for me’.”

Nicola would help Dave while he towed clapped-out motors up hills in the rain and snow.

In the evenings, he worked as a DJ and any savings they had were put into buying houses, which they would do up. Dave says: “It was seven days a week, every night.”

A switch to selling minibuses made Dave a fortune, and he was able to live a life of luxury.

When the global financial system collapsed in 2008, many customers told him they could not afford new vehicles. The banks would no longer lend them any money, even when they had a good credit rating.

That’s when his community high street bank in Burnley was born.

Dave claims a senior banker asked him whether he had “been to Oxford or Cambridge” — and he told them “lads from Burnley don’t get those types of opportunities”.

Again, he had to find a way around the bureaucratic brick wall, so he set up Burnley Savings and Loans instead in 2011. While it is not strictly a high street bank, it does allow customers to deposit money and others to borrow reasonable sums.

Due to the fact Dave is still trying to get a banking licence, customers can only deposit a limited amount. But more than £30million has been loaned to businesses and only a small fraction have defaulted.

Dave says he has not taken a penny from Burnley Savings and Loans. What makes it worthwhile for him is helping people, such as a florist whose £10,000 loan was withdrawn by a bank after she started work on knocking down the front of her shop.

He recalls: “She rang me in tears and I went round. I told her to put the kettle on and we had a cup of tea.”

The businesswoman has paid him back in full. Word of Dave’s entrepreneurial feats reached British-born Piers when he was having lunch in Los Angeles two years ago.

The producer, whose writing credits include Mission Impossible and Fisherman’s Friends, flew to Burnley to find out more.

One idea he had was putting British rock greats Def Leppard into the story, called Bank Of Dave. Meeting the band was, for fan Dave, “probably, if not definitely, the best day of my life”.

He says: “I was thinking, ‘Wow, Def Leppard flew in from America especially. They had heard about the Bank Of Dave, what I had done and they loved the idea of being in the film’.”

While the movie changes a lot of real events for dramatic effect, most of the locations are genuine. Actor Rory, who Dave says “looks more like me than I do”, even filmed in the millionaire’s home in the picturesque Ribble Valley near Burnley.

But despite his wealth, Dave is determined his son, a policeman, and daughter, who works with animals, make their own way in life.

He says: “I have seen so many people give to the next generation and it becomes a huge, huge problem.” Dave’s bank has received support from all sides of the political spectrum.

Senior Conservative Steve Baker, who is the Northern Ireland minister, said: “It is towards this model that the world should move.”

The idea of a community bank lending to firms that the multinationals ignore is one that Dave wants to spread across Britain and he says: “I am just getting going.”

The businessman’s canny wheeler-dealing has earned him a legion of fans and he regularly appears on television to offer advice.

In the cost-of-living crisis, Dave’s can-do spirit is proving to be inspirational. He has also been the star of two Channel 4 shows, one following his attempts to set up the bank and the other where he campaigned against payday loan companies such as Wonga.

Recently, he donated equipment and food to a school so it could make breakfasts for needy pupils.

Dave says: “That is what the Bank of Dave stands for. These bankers have been given millions of quid, yet we have kids starving round the corner.

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