FROM abject poverty to a place in the Sunday Times Rich List, rarely can the expression "from rags to riches" have been used more apropriately than when describing the career of George Reynolds. Sadly for him, the fall from grace was just as spectacular.

When sold to the despised Besford Court residential school by Sunderland's education authorities as a child for £100, there appeared little hope in life for the young Reynolds.

His autobiography, Cracked It! went to great lengths to explain the punishments meted out in an institution where, he claimed, brutality was the byword for discipline and care was never on the agenda.

His school reports were littered with damning phrases - mentally deficient, educationally sub-normal, retarded and backward.

It was a start to life that few, even the bitterest of Reynolds' enemies, would have wished on anyone.

But, ultimately, it played a part in shaping the attitude Reynolds would display throughout his life - a fierce determination to prove his detractors wrong, no matter what the argument.

That outlook was evident during his first stint at her majesty's pleasure - a six-month spell in Durham Prison for theft.

Reynolds was given solitary confinement for comparing the governor to a Nazi. The governor demanded an apology but Reynolds, though he knew he was in the wrong, stubbornly refused.

That Reynolds had fallen into a life of crime in the 1960s would have come as no surprise to the teachers he detested so much.

Today, his reputation as a safe-cracker is the stuff of local legend and something he has frequently boasted about.

Reynolds learned how to handle explosives in the mines, in the days when the industry thrived in the North-East.

His safe-cracking career began with an office job here and a shop raid there. But as he grew accustomed to the trappings of wealth, the crimes came thick and fast, all over the country.

Eventually, he was caught as he raided an explosives shed at a County Durham colliery. Reynolds denied the offence, but was found guilty and sent to Durham Prison for another six months.

More chequered years followed, with the temptation of a big safe job always too much to resist.

Reynolds' longest stretch in prison - four years - came after he was convicted for safe-blowing, burglary, theft and handling explosives. He was released from Kirkham Open Prison, in Lancashire, in 1964.

After vowing never to return to jail, the somewhat less glamorous world of kitchen worktops would be the setting for the next phase of Reynolds' life.

Told he would never succeed in the cut-throat business, which he began in humble premises in Shildon, County Durham, Reynolds - as always - set out to prove everyone wrong.

His policy was simple - take the opposite approach to everyone else and undercut competitors.

And it worked. Direct Worktops thrived and, over the years, more strings were added to the Reynolds' business bow. George Reynolds UK Limited, Shildon Cabinetmakers and the Shildon Trade Centre were thriving.

For a man who denied money was his motivation, he spent a lot of time talking about it - his Witton Hall home was worth £7m, as was his yacht and there was a £1m Harrods shopping spree.

It was Reynolds' ultimate fantasy - to have made those who doubted him all those years ago in Sunderland choke on their words.

However, the critics remained.

Local councillors trying to protect the interests of their residents from events on the George Reynolds Industrial Estate would be subjected to the late-night phone calls and "visits" that would become a trademark in the years that followed.

Any questioning of Reynolds' actions was, to him, incomprehensible. After all he had accomplished, how did anyone dare to doubt him?

Reynolds achieved fame as The Sunday Times Rich List ranked him one of the country's wealthiest people - not far behind the Queen. But that was not enough for George. On several occasions he claimed he was worth far more than the figures published.

It was against that backdrop that Reynolds took over as chairman of Darlington Football Club.

On May 4, 1999, the most incredible rollercoaster ride in the Quakers' history was set in motion.

Darlington were perennial strugglers, with a core of die-hard supporters who expected little and, as a result, were rarely disappointed.

The Quakers, it seemed, would never escape from the Football League basement.

But with only a few words bellowed into a microphone ahead of a Feethams clash with Exeter City, Reynolds pledged to change all that.

"I promise you I will deliver the goods for Darlington," the chipboard tycoon, hailed as the saviour who rescued the club from bankruptcy, declared.

Previously long-suffering supporters were in dreamland. "We're so rich it's unbelievable", they chanted, as victory after victory was racked up by an expensively-assembled team.

The Quakers disposed of arch-rivals Hartlepool United to book a trip to Wembley Stadium for the Division Three play-off final in May 2000.

Buoyed by Reynolds' promises of Premiership football and a new home to match such ambitions, fans headed for the capital in jubilant mood.

But defeat to Peterborough United shattered the dream and it was all downhill from there.

Still, Reynolds detractors - "the whingers, the moaning minnies and all those other people who complain of the heat when the sun is shining" as he described them - were lurking.

The Reynolds Arena was taking shape on Neasham Road, despite the objections of nearby residents whose pleas to the local council for help fell on deaf ears.

Typically stubborn, the chairman could not see why they did not share his vision.

Nor could he understand the sceptics who said he was doing things backwards.

Surely a team fit for football's top-flight was needed before a 25,000-capacity stadium was built for a club that had, until then, been happy to attract more than 4,000 fans.

On the field, in early 2001, the club was facing a relegation struggle under manager Gary Bennett. Reynolds, meanwhile, was railing against the "obscene" wages paid to players and investment in the team was slashed.

Supporters, who once chorused "Georgie, show us your scarf", now mockingly sang "Georgie, show us your cash".

After Darlington were hammered 3-0 at home by Chesterfield in January 2001, Reynolds claimed he had to leave Feethams early for his own safety and that of his family.

Not accepting that the fans had been angered by his refusal to create a better team, Reynolds said they must have been riled by "inflammatory" reports in The Northern Echo.

Bennett departed, to be replaced by ex-Leyton Orient manager Tommy Taylor. For Reynolds though, things did not improve.

In February 2002, the Quakers made national headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Reynolds' wife, Susan, addressed a fans' forum, announcing that it was not unknown for players to deliberately "throw" matches at that time of year.

Led by skipper Craig Liddle, the team walked out in disgust. Speculation about legal action and a players' strike abounded. Once again, Reynolds could not understand the opposing point of view.

"Players are like cattle, when one gets up they all get up because of teamwork," he said.

"They all follow suit, that's the way they are. They all stick together and you can't blame them for that.

"I couldn't care less if they want to play or not. If they walked, I would be glad to see the back of some of them."

The chairman and the players met head-on at the Durham training ground the following month and Reynolds demanded that they apologise for leaving the forum. No such apology was forthcoming.

Controversy after controversy followed and the club alienated more and more of its followers.

Reynolds, though, was never shy about confronting his critics. Anyone who dared to hold a conflicting opinion or question his motives could expect a home visit in the early hours of the morning.

The "rumours board" next to the ground directed abuse at everyone, from local media figures to residents who had expressed concerns about the development.

Borough council officials, often the target of Reynolds' vitriol for imposing what he believed were stringent conditions, did nothing.

Colombian World Cup star Faustino Asprilla was paraded before the Feethams faithful as the most astonishing signing in North-East football history. Not long afterwards, he did a runner to the Middle East.

By 2003, the Reynolds Arena was close to completion - thanks to a £4m loan from the Quakers' future owners, the Sterling Consortium.

Several legally-binding planning conditions had been breached but, nevertheless, the first game went ahead on August 16.

Soon though, it became apparent that the costs of such a huge - and unnecessary - venture were crippling the club.

Finally, only two days before Christmas, supporters received the worst possible present as a desperate Reynolds called in the administrators.

A few weeks later, he stepped down as chairman.

The independent Darlington Supporters' Trust said the move was a huge relief and branded the Reynolds Arena "a monument built more on personal vanity than sound business sense".

But George Reynolds was not finished. Ultimately, he would decide if the Quakers lived or died.

Sterling, desperate not to lose its investment, was keen to take over the club, but needed Reynolds' vote at a creditors' meeting to push the deal through.

Late one Friday evening in May, after hours of talks in Leeds, that agreement was reached.

So it was that Reynolds left the beautiful game without having realised his Premiership dream. Not long afterwards, the Football League introduced a "fit and proper person test" for new club owners.

For many Quakers fans, that was too little, too late.

Last year, the former chairman was on the wrong side of the law again.

And earlier this year, he was disqualified from company management for eight years.

He gave an undertaking not to hold directorships in respect of his conduct as a director of George Reynolds UK, which collapsed with debts of about £3.4m.

In the crazed, colourful world of George Reynolds, no one could predict what the future holds.

But after the latest chapter closed yesterday, proving his doubters wrong will be harder than ever.