Todd: From league stardom to bankruptcy

Brent Todd was a front-rower for the Canberra Raiders in the late 1980s and early 1990s when the "green machine" were establishing themselves as one of the great rugby league sides of the modern era.

He played 87 games for the Raiders alongside some of the giants of the game including Mel Meninga, Bradley Clyde, Ricky Stuart and Laurie Daley.

In 1989 he became the second Kiwi to win a premiership when the Raiders came back to beat Balmain in the Winfield Cup Grand Final.

Todd played in three other Grand Finals in 1987, 1990 and 1991 but he became a casualty of the club's salary cap breaches during the 1990 season and left the Raiders in 1992.

Originally from Canterbury and also a New Zealand water polo representative, Todd debuted for the Kiwis in 1985 on their tour of Britain and France. He played 28 tests before retiring from international league in 1993, but continued his association with league as a television commentator and later as a selector for the Kiwis.

He married South African surfing star Wendy Botha in 1993 and the pair became television celebrities co-hosting a sports show and appearing on Celebrity Treasure Island.

Todd turned to the hospitality industry and built a number of pubs throughout Auckland. But in January 2004 three of his bars in Mt Albert, Papatoetoe and Hillsborough were robbed of about $100,000 in one day.

Six months later another Todd-owned bar was robbed. Todd sold the bars last year.

More controversy was to follow when he became the subject of a Serious Fraud Office inquiry into payment irregularities from gaming machines.

He later signed a deal with the North Harbour Rugby Union absolving him of any wrongdoing and said he would repay $650,000 of the $850,000 identified as paid to him.

Todd was declared bankrupt in February by the Insolvency and Trustee Service in New Zealand while continuing his work as a labourer in Queensland as allegations surrounded him for his involvement in the celebrity drug ring.

He has two children to Botha but the pair have split.