Dragons’ Den star who won £100,000 investment jailed for 2 years for blackmail-Pierra Willix-Entertainment – Metro

A former Dragons’ Den star has been jailed for two years (Picture: BBC/ Dragons’ Den)

A businesswoman who was given a £100,000 investment on Dragons’ Den has been jailed for blackmail.

In 2015 Nicola Fletcher received the backing of Duncan Bannatyne and Piers Linney when appearing on the BBC series and pitching her product – high-visibility wear for horse riders.

Her firm, Equisafety Ltd, has previously worked with dressage Olympians including Charlotte Dujardin and Carl Hester.

However nearly a decade on Fletcher, 49, has been sentenced to two years behind bars after demanding £6,000 from a former employee.

After a dispute with former employee Lorraine Davies, the businesswoman repeatedly wrote bad references for her former friend, whom she wanted to ‘bury’.

Her actions left Davies unable to find a job for nine months.

Nearly a decade after receiving a £100,000 investment on the BBC series, Nicola Fletcher has been convicted of blackmail (Picture: BBC/ Dragons’ Den)

The dispute between the pair initially began after Davis brought a case to the employment tribunal following a row at Badminton Horse Trials over mould in her accommodation, which led to her leaving the firm.

The terms of an out-of-court settlement ordered Fletcher to pay £3,000 in costs plus a further £3,000 in termination and bonus payments, as well as an assurance she would provide her former aide with a positive reference.

However, when Davies was then offered a job at a veterinary hospital and listed Fletcher as a referee, she received a letter from her former boss offering ‘a reference full of lies in exchange for the value of the settlement or a reference full of truth’.

After Davies failed to respond, the bosses at Liverpool University’s Leahurst Equine Hospital rescinded the job offer after being sent what was labelled an ‘extremely personal reference’ from Fletcher.

‘To get rid of her I gave her £2,000 tax-free and it cost me £3,000 in legal fees,’ she wrote.

‘So maybe the £2,000 blackmail money and the £3,000 legal fees was worth it!!!’

Around a month later Fletcher sent her former an employee an email saying, ‘sorry about the job…but I promised I would send a truthful reference’.

After potential employees also asked for references from Fletcher, Davies was rejected for at least one other job and she then had to accept two part-time jobs on minimum wage without a reference.

In a 22-page victim impact statement Davies read out at Chester Crown Court, she detailed the ‘cruelty and malice’ she’d been subjected to, adding the ‘pursuit was relentless but also extremely calculated’.

She refused to provide a reference for a former employee (Picture: Equisafety/ Cavendish Press (Man)

‘At every juncture, her actions executed to manifest the most distress…she acted with the intention of inflicting the greatest level of harm,’ she said, as reported by The Mirror.

‘To have desirable work is a basic Human Right, one which another has repeatedly tried to prevent. Absolutely everything relies upon earning a living. There is nothing more harmful, to anyone alive, than to take that away.

‘There can never be any excuse or justification… to have behaved in this way.’

After the first negative reference Davies contacted police, with Fletcher then ‘admitting her actions’ but did not consider them blackmail when first interviewed.

‘She believed she was wronged in the employment dispute which she felt she was forced to settle. She hated Lorraine and wanted to get her back,’ the court was told.

Fletcher’s lawyer Indunee Seneviratne said the initial letter was sent ‘in a fit of fury’ when she was overwhelmed by the death of her father, adding her client’s business would have to close if Fletcher was jailed.

But after admitting to blackmail, Fletcher was sentenced to two years behind bars.

Judge Michael Leeming told her that Davies had been deprived of a career which offered her and her family ‘financial security’, adding she was ‘entirely responsible’.

‘Every aspect of her life has been affected, her health, her well-being, her confidence, the emotions of her family,’ he added.

Her actions were labelled as ‘cruel and malicious’ (Picture: Cavendish Press Manchester Ltd)

Fletcher was also banned from contacting her former employee by the court.

A few months ago, Fletcher failed in a bid to have one of her products recognised as ‘art’.

After claiming a rival company copied her hi-vis horse riding waistcoat, Fletcher filed a copyright claim in the High Court.

However, the judge said while it was ‘more attractive than a builder’s best’ it lacked enough ‘artistic craftsmanship’ to be protected from potential imitations.

Dragons’ Den is streaming on BBC iPlayer.

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