A buy to let property investment specialist, who reportedly became a multi-millionaire before part of his company collapsed last year with massive debts, has been the target of a violent assault and robbery.

A masked gang of six forced there into the Lancashire home of Toby Whittaker and made his wife and four children get under a table.

They then threatened the 32-year-old with a knife and beat him up before taking items from the house and making off in the family’s £60,000 Audi Q7 4x4.

Since the robbery police have confirmed that one of the lines of enquiry they are following is that the robbery’s motive was Whittaker’s former business dealings which saw the residential department at his company Dylan Harvey collapse.

It had debts of around £100 million and hundreds of investors lost deposits of up to £20,000 on apartments in Manchester that had been under construction.

The collapse was followed by a series of protests by disgruntled clients and a ‘hate campaign’ was launched online.

Whittaker, whose clients included premiership footballers, is due to stand trial later this year following another police investigation into an alleged insurance fraud relating to a separate burglary at his home.

• The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has confirmed the election of Matthew Wyles, as chairman of the organisation for a second year.

Wyles, who is group distribution director of Nationwide Building Society, will be supported by new joint deputy chairman, Colin Shave, chief executive of GE Money Home Lending Ltd who has taken over from John Heron.

Colin will be joining incumbent joint deputy chairman Martijn Van der Heijden, head of mortgages at HSBC, for 2010.