ONE of Scotland's leading ­restaurateurs and entrepreneurs has been declared bankrupt following the collapse of his property empire and failure of his golf academy.

Satty Singh, 44, a prominent supporter of both Rangers FC and the Tories, had been taken to court for failing to pay back loans, during which a motion for sequestration was granted.

Friends say the Mr Singh has become yet another victim of the economic collapse and of regime change at the top of the Royal Bank of Scotland. He is also understood to have lost more than £1million of his own money in his business ventures.

Mr Singh, from Glasgow, worked as a waiter before opening his own restaurant, and by 1994 he was running his famous curry house, Mister Singh's India, in the city.

He then expanded into property and in 2004 acquired the Mearns Castle Golf Academy. Two years later, he was named Entrepreneur of the Year at the Asian Business Awards.

Mr Singh has had other sporting, business and charity links, becoming the first Asian to become director of Rangers Youth Devel­opment. He recently resigned from the board of urban regeneration company Clyde Gateway and has been an ambassador for the Prince of Wales Hospice in Glasgow.

In the last decade he teamed up with John Viola, the football agent, to develop property in Dubai and across the Middle East.

It is understood some of the biggest names in Old Firm football over the past decade are among those with money tied up in his golf academy.

Having been on a list of top businessmen to oppose Scottish independence, he made headlines three years ago when he switched his support from Labour to the Conservatives, saying they represent the "new politics" and that the Tories were the only party capable of tackling the chal­lenges facing Britain.

One close friend said: "I feel really sorry for Satty and he needs to realise he's not the only one hit by the economic collapse. The sad thing is there was light at the end of the tunnel for him but there was no more slack from the bank.

"The guys who have lost money in his golf academy have all been really understanding. He maybe overstretched himself in the last decade and the property collapse didn't help. He's a lovely, lovely guy and has lost a lot of his own money here."

One of his latest ventures was events management firm A&S Promotions, which brought former US President Bill Clinton, his one-time vice-­president Al Gore and Hans Blix, the former UN weapons inspector, to Scotland. He was also involved in commercial initiatives with ­Rangers. A life-long fan of the club, he has called his sons after 1990s Ibrox players Mark Walters and Oleg Kuznetsov.

Mr Singh, whose other business ventures include property letting firms MS Namana Ltd and Namana Properties Ltd, was not present at Glasgow Sheriff Court when the hearing was called on Monday.

Mr Singh was unavailable when contacted yesterday.