[3] He did his national service with the Welsh Guards, before studying at Christ Church, Oxford, from where he graduated with a second-class degree in law.

Originally, the company was launched to allow Britons to speculate on gold, when foreign exchange controls made it exorbitantly expensive to actually buy it.

[5] Although a successful businessman, Wheeler was not a well-known figure nationally until he donated £5m to the Conservative Party during the 2001 election campaign.

[7] The government, along with the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, had pledged in their 2005 manifestos to hold a referendum on the European Constitution, which Wheeler held did not have "significant or material differences" from the Treaty of Lisbon.

[9] On 28 March 2009, Wheeler donated £100,000 to the UK Independence Party (UKIP) after criticising David Cameron's stance towards the Treaty of Lisbon and the European Union.

At the launch of the Vote Leave campaign for Brexit in October 2015, Wheeler was reported to be one of the new group's three major donors, with Peter Cruddas and John Mills; the three men were appointed as joint co-treasurers.

[12] Wheeler was called an "obsessive" gambler,[1][13][14] taking a keen interest in card and risk games and having played bridge with Lord Lucan on 6 November 1974, two days before his disappearance, and with Omar Sharif,[5] as well as being a regular competitor in World Series of Poker championships.