Shortly after becoming vice president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum promised to modernise his country and make it "one of the best in the world" by 2021.

Now the ruler of Dubai's reputation as a moderniser lies in tatters after a British judge found he had abducted and kidnapped his own adult daughters after they dared to stand up to him.

The irony that the collapse of his marriage, to an Arabian princess eager to test the boundaries of women's rights in traditional Muslim countries, has damaged him so irrevocably cannot have escaped him.

His fall is even more spectacular considering that Britain – a country he has revered since studying here as a boy – has been the author of his humiliation.

The 70-year-old billionaire, with lavish homes in the south of England, came to count the Queen as a personal friend, in part due to their shared passion for horse racing. He is pictured below at Newmarket racecourse in 2013.