HER weekly shopping used to be delivered to her 80ha mansion, by luxury department store Harrods.

Now, Mrs Michelle Young stands in line at local shops and often has to dig into her purse to find the money to pay for her groceries.

Her husband's vast fortune is gone. Tycoon Scot Young claims he lost millions in Russian property deals and is now broke and unable to pay millions in a divorce settlement for his wife and kids.

Just three years ago life was so different.

Mrs Young lived in some of the finest homes in England and drove top-of-the-line luxury cars and had a yacht in Monaco.

'There was really no limit to what I could spend. I could have anything I wanted,' Mrs Young told the Mail on Sunday.

'I never had fewer than three luxury cars, including a Hummer just to take my dogs to the vet.'

Midst of divorce

The couple, who have two daughters, Scarlet, 16, and Sasha, 14, are now in the midst of a divorce.

Mr Young is due back at the High Court this week, where he faces jail unless he fully answers a questionnaire into his financial circumstances.

At a previous hearing, his wife's lawyers claimed to have evidence that he was still worth £400 million ($937m) in 2006.

For three years he has failed to explain adequately how he came to lose his fortune so quickly. No receipts, deeds or papers have been forthcoming.

In 2007, he claimed that not only had every last penny vanished but that he was being pursued by creditors to the tune of £27 million. He claimed that things are so bad he had to apply for legal aid.

Mrs Young, who faces eviction later this month because there is no money to pay the rent, gave more details on their lavish lifestyle in the past.

She said: 'Every time he pulled off a deal he bought a fabulously expensive watch - he must have had more than 200. He had countless luxury cars, sometimes buying a new one every six weeks.'

But as they got richer, their marriage started to get shaky. By 2005, the marriage had grown increasingly unhappy, with one episode in particular almost bringing it to the point of collapse.

Michelle recalled: 'I was at home with the girls when robbers wearing balaclavas and carrying weapons came to the house and stole three of Scot's cars - a Mercedes, a Porsche Turbo and a Porsche Cayenne.

'I called the police, who were there when Scot came home very aggressive and screaming at me, 'My cars, my cars. Why didn't you (expletive) stop them?' The policeman told him he should be thankful that we hadn't been hurt. I found the whole thing very upsetting.'

The family decided to make a fresh start in Miami, a place they had visited often. They bought a £3.5 million beachfront home as a base while they searched for somewhere more substantial.

But, according to Mrs Young, within weeks of arriving, Mr Young left for Britain, saying he was negotiating a very big Russian deal, a £2 billion shopping and retail development that he called Project Moscow.

Three months later, Mrs Young received a call from a solicitor saying her husband had lost all his money.

'I couldn't take it in, I couldn't believe it. He came back a week later saying he'd lost it all on Project Moscow,' she said.

'From then on things spiralled out of control. Everything, including the £4 million of antiques, were repossessed. The money had gone from all the accounts and I had nothing.'

A friend of Mr Young told the Mail on Sunday that the tycoon was 'very positive about reaching an out-of-court settlement with Michelle. He intends to provide for his wife and children and is furious he has been portrayed as a bad husband and father'.

The Youngs' luxurious lifestyle

This article was first published in The New Paper.