Trailblazing businesswoman Sybil Young — who along with her husband was fined $1 million dollars in the late 1980s for violating currency control laws — has died at the age of 81.In an active life, Mrs Young also helped establish motocross and powerboat racing as sports on the Island, becoming the first woman commodore of the Bermuda Power Boat Association and the first woman to compete in an Around The Island race. Mr Young continued racing into in her 50s.Mrs Young moved to Bermuda from the UK in 1956 after marrying Roderick Young, and started married life working in her husband’s family business, selling and renting Triumph and Honda motorbikes and scooters from a showroom on East Broadway and eventually taking over the business.The couple developed an enthusiasm for motocross and powerboat racing, sponsoring teams in both sports in the 1950s and also taking part in powerboat races.But it was in 1987 that the couple made headlines, after being handed a massive fine for depositing large sums into a US bank account.According to documents, Mrs Young opened an account with a New York branch of Chemical Bank in 1981, and proceeded to make regular deposits of cash and traveller’s cheques by registered mail from Bermuda.Although the bank was suspicious of the transactions, the deposits kept on coming until an incident in August 1986, when Mr Young appeared at the branch in person to make a $35,000 deposit. The bank refused to process the cheques and instead mailed them back to Mrs Young in Bermuda.Just a few months later, then-Attorney General Saul Froomkin reportedly received a tip about the transactions and launched an investigation into the Youngs’ banking activities. The US Department of Justice was drafted in to help the Attorney General track down evidence, and in 1987 the Youngs pleaded guilty to several violations, earning themselves a fine of $1 million.The couple were later unsuccessful in suing the US Government and Chemical for breaching financial privacy codes.Last night daughter Joy Tucker said her mother had a feisty personality and always insisted on doing things her way.“And if someone told her it couldn’t be done, she would go ahead and do it just to show them they were wrong,” Mrs Tucker said.“She lived life her own way, even if that meant disagreeing with people.”Mrs Tucker said her parents had been extremely generous throughout their lives, frequently donating to charity anonymously.And the couple also acted as mentors to young Bermudian boys who showed an enthusiasm for bikes, by allowing them to clean the company’s stock of vehicles.“As far back as I can remember, my parents always had young boys in the backyard cleaning bikes,” Mrs Tucker said.“There would be other staff there working on the bikes, fixing them, and so these young boys were surrounded by decent, hard-working people and as a result, they grew up to be decent young men who went on to run their own businesses successfully. “Mrs Young is survived by her daughter and a son, Carl, and four grandchildren.