Court Reporter Megi Rychlikova charts the rise and fall of colourful character Guy Brudenell.

He loved the headlines and high living. Whether it was leaping into the sky with the Archbishop of York, annoying the villagers near his home with his helicopter or his high-profile property plans, Guy Brudenell liked to make a splash.

In 2005, when he married Pennita Wilshire, the owner of fashion boutiques in Helmsley and Northallerton, she arrived at All Saints, Helmsley, in a glass carriage brought from Norfolk for the occasion and she walked into the church on a purple carpet. Guests were encouraged to be "glamorous". The couple have since divorced.

He lived in a country mansion in Nawton near Helmsley, valued at £1.3 million before the property crash, which had its own cricket pitch, a tennis court, greenhouses, summerhouse, cottage and terrace on its 7.62 acres.

In 2009, shortly before his world imploded, he engaged in his biggest publicity stunt of all, raising £50,000 by a parachute jump at 12,500 ft with the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, in aid of The Afghanistan Trust for the families of wounded and killed members of the 3rd Battalion, the Parachute Regiment.

The two men agreed to do the jump when Brudenell attended a dinner to raise money for a new academy in Hull.

He was scathing of those who objected to his extravagant lifestyle and wishes.

Villagers in Nawton did not like the roar of his comings and goings in a helicopter that landed in his garden. They said it made their life a misery.

So he got planning permission to build a private helipad about 170 metres from his home, against the objections of Nawton Parish Council.

When there were plans to improve Helmsley’s architecture with a Village Design Statement , he railed about a "loose knit group of meddlers" interfering in planning matters and told anyone who objected to what was happening in their area to "get off your backsides and make a difference yourself”.

Sometimes his flamboyant schemes ran into trouble. He had planned to build the tallest building in Middlesbrough, a 375ft-high apartment block in the heart of the Teesside town, with 27 storeys to house 600 students and 44 private apartments.

But as workmen demolished the closed nightclub then occupying the site, part of the building collapsed unexpectedly. The Health and Safety Executive mounted an inquiry and the demolition process was revised to prevent further problems.

To a casual eye, he was a self-made millionaire.

His money came from hotels, restaurants, property companies and the aviation industry.

He was a director of companies registered in Britain and the offshore tax havens of the Isle of Man and British Virgin Islands. But it was an empire built on sand. He did not have the income to sustain the lifestyle he wanted.

When the crash came in 2009, he said he had debts of £21 million in loans, credit cards and other money owed. The biggest creditor was the Crown. He also claimed he had no assets.

In December 2009, he was declared bankrupt.

By May 2010, he was talking confidently of paying off all his debts, annulling the bankruptcy order, and going back into the property business. But back in September he had also told the county court he had enough assets to pay off his debts. The Official Receiver was suspicious and called in the police.