Ex-Leeds director Simon Morris arrested in fraud and money-laundering probe »

Even as he was being taken away by police yesterday, two Land Rovers and a shiny black Bentley were parked on the driveway of his detached home, which lies on a leafy avenue in the affluent village of Scarcroft, just outside Leeds.

The huge, gated, newly-built property seemed a fitting base for a man who was said to have amassed a fortune of around £69m by the time he was 30, and featured at number eight in the Sunday Times Young Rich List.

The ex-Leeds Grammar School pupil only missed out being included in the main list – which this year featured Richard Branson and the owner of Chelsea football club Roman Abramovich – by £1m.

One of the city's best-known and flamboyant characters, he became a household name when he became part of a consortium of Yorkshire-based businessmen who bought Leeds United in 2004 before it was sold to former Chelsea chairman Ken Bates 10 months later.

It may have been his interest in football which propelled Morris into the limelight, but it was his flair for property investment which first brought him to the public's attention.

A year into a law degree at Lancaster University Morris is said to have dropped out in order to turn his hand to business. He began selling leather coats on a market stall, but soon decided to move on to the higher-risk, bigger returns of bricks and mortar.

Morris Properties – a company which specialised in residential property for students and young professionals – was born after Morris bought his first flat, refurbished it, and sold it for a profit.

The company went on to develop 20/20 House – a £36m residential scheme in the centre of Leeds – and as the city's property market became one of the fasting-growing in the UK, Morris was able to cash in on the massive interest in buy-to-let properties.

He sold mainly terrace houses in inner-city areas, like Woodhouse and Hyde Park, to investors who then rented them out to students.

The company's 2006 turnover was more than £80m and the firm cemented its success by moving into a purpose-built £8m headquarters in Brewery Wharf.

Business was booming for the high-flying young entrepreneur and in May last year Morris Properties revealed it was expanding into commercial property and planned to invest up to £200m.

By that point the former Leeds United director's property portfolio gave him the financial power to bid £10m for the club as it edged towards administration.

He later joined forces with London company Redbus to launch a joint bid for the club, but Bates won his fight to regain control.

Things began to come unstuck for Morris when in August last year a Mercedes McLaren he was driving was shot at as he drove along Tongue Lane, Moortown, Leeds, after leaving a gym.

The 30-year-old suffered minor facial injuries and there was about £20,000 worth of damage to the car.

Mr Morris said he believed it was a random attack. He later retracted his statement and said he believed a brick had been thrown at his window.

Towards the end of last year, when the bubble finally burst on the Leeds property market, it was revealed that around 25 Morris Properties staff could be axed.

Later the company hit the headlines when it was subject of an investigation by the BBC's Panorama.

Dozens of people who had bought buy-to-let properties from Morris Properties Ltd claimed they had paid too much.

One group of 50 investors, represented by Max Gold Partnership, sought a cash settlement from the wealthy businessman who blamed external economic factors, such as the credit crunch and interest rate rises for their difficulties.

He offered them £700,000 in a goodwill gesture but it was rejected by the group. In August Morris Properties Morley Ltd and SR Morris Investments Ltd were both dissolved.

Earlier this month SRM Holdings went into administration and Morris was made redundant from his own company.

Yesterday's arrest with seven others in connection with a money laundering and fraud investigation is the latest blow for Morris as his property empire crumbles.