AMIGO Loans founder James Benamor is the richest person in Dorset, while Mark and Mo Constantine of Lush have seen their wealth rise £78million in a year.

But their fortunes are outstripped by retirement developers Clinton, Spencer and John McCarthy in Ringwood, according to the Sunday Times Rich List.

The full list will be published this weekend, but is set to show that 40-year-old James Benamor is the richest in Dorset and 15th in the region.

He founded the Richmond Group and Amigo Loans and featured in Channel Four’s series Secret Millionaire a decade ago. His wealth is estimated at £380m, unchanged from a year ago.

Clinton, 53, and Spencer McCarthy, 52, own the £550m Ringwood-based business Churchill Retirement Living.

They set up the business from a garage in 1994 and turned to retirement accommodation in 2000, following in the footsteps of their father John, 78, who co-founded McCarthy & Stone. The three men are said to be worth £635m, up £30m from last year.

Tom Singh, who founded the Weymouth-headquartered New Look fashion chain, was estimated to be worth £370m, down £15m from last year. He sold the company for £1.96billion in 2015 but his family retained a 10 per cent stake in the business, which is planning to close stores as part of a restructuring under a company voluntary arrangement.

Mark and Mo Constantine have seen their wealth increase by £78m to £290m, the report says. The couple, aged 65 and 64 respectively, were among the founders of the cruelty-free cosmetics chain in Poole High Street in 1995.

Lush, which is among Poole’s biggest employers and has more than 900 shops around the world, is worth £450m.

Robert Watts, compiler of the Sunday Times Rich List, said: “Our South West Rich List list is largely a story of self-made wealth – often by people from humble roots.

“Mark Constantine spent time living in woods as a homeless teenager,” he added.

“This is the big change we’ve seen in the Sunday Times Rich List over its 30 years. We see less inherited wealth and more entrepreneurs who start out with little, work hard and strike gold.”

The guide says the south west is an engineering hotspot, with Sir James Dyson its richest person, worth £9.5bn.

The full list is likely to include such other wealthy Dorset figures as Bournemouth landowner Sir George Meyrick, Haskins Gardens Centres chairman Warren Haskins.