In what is thought to be Britain’s biggest house repossession, the £20 million home of a failed businessman was seized last Thursday by bailiffs acting for investment bank, Investec.

The seven-bedroom house belonged to 35 year-old Austrian property tycoon, Cevdet Caner, who has been described as the “enfant terrible” of Austrian’s financial markets.

Mr Caner’s business empire, Level One, folded in September, owing banks £1.2 billion. The group owned almost 28,000 residential and 403 commercial properties in Germany.

The Mayfair house, which has a swimming pool, was bought for £16 million in July 2007 and has since been refurbished at an estimated cost of £6 million.

A spokesman for Hamptons International, one of the agents that will put the property on the market this week for £20 million, has said: “It is highly unusual for a property at the top end of the residential market like this to be repossessed. This is the largest repossession we have seen.”