Sam Beilin, 48, former secretary of TRB Estates was made bankrupt by Liverpool County Court after a petition was filed against him by a Melville Morris, an accountant whose services were employed.

Mr Morris ran and owned Haslebrow Finance Ltd, a small finance company to which Mr Beilin owes money.

According to the Liverpool Daily Post, Mr Beilin is a known fundraiser who used to chair the Jewish youth centre, Harold House and is “one of the most high profile victims of the property crash in Liverpool”.

Also made bankrupt was the company’s former director, William Kearns, also 48. The pair’s bankruptcies were ordered earlier this year in February and April, however, neither man has worked for TRB Estates since January 2009.

The men also ran Honey Properties and Euston Square Properties together but have resigned from these posts too. It is unclear how much the pair owed exactly but city insiders speculate Mr Beilin’s debts alone to be over £1 million.

The pair have never been too far from the limelight, or from controversy. In 2003 they provoked outrage when they took a church to court after it reneged on a building scheme. The developers claimed to have lost £600,000 after the Welsh church pulled out of the project last minute.

Eyebrows were also raised three years earlier, in November 2003, when Mr Kearns and associate John Kearns were fined £900 for failing to deliver a sister firm’s accounts to Companies House.

More recently however, the men were under the spotlight for the right reasons when they and four others launched Liverpool Property Aid in 2007 to raise money for a host of charities including the NSPCC Safe Place Appeal, Claire House, Zoe’s Place, and Marie Curie Cancer Care.

And in 2008 it was Mr Beilin who was celebrated for his involvement in a star studded NSPCC event in Monte Carlo where over £250,000 was raised.