Mother's stair scare switched on a light

AN ENTREPRENEUR who appeared on TV series Dragons' Den last night is set to make a fortune - because his mother nearly fell down the stairs of her Fort George home during a power cut. Chris Haines survived a grilling from the five self-made multi-millionaires and secured a £95,000 investment in his company, Safe-t-first.

His invention, the SafeTlight, is a battery-operated, rechargeable low-level night light. It has a sensor that detects when darkness has fallen and doubles as an emergency torch.

'It has been a turning point in my life,' said Mr Haines.

'It's quite a simple idea. People often ask me why no one thought of it before.'

The popular BBC2 programme invites members of the public to pitch an idea to the 'dragons', who are asked for a cash investment in exchange for a stake in the company and product.

Armed with notoriously vicious tongues, the highly-successful entrepreneurs are renowned for shooting ideas down in flames.

But Mr Haines withstood the heat and won over Theo Paphitis and Deborah Meaden, both of whom invested £47,500 in exchange for 15% of the company each.

'I was shell-shocked when they agreed to invest,' he said.

'It was quite nerve-racking and daunting - they look quite ferocious. When you walk up those stairs, you certainly feel like you're entering a den.'

Mr Haines thought up the idea after his mother almost suffered a nasty fall during a power outage in 2003.

He was delighted that the two dragons had agreed to come on board, albeit for a bigger stake in the company.

'They left me with my shirt on,' he said.

'They've got the experience in marketing.

'If you'd asked me before the show, I wouldn't have picked them. I realised during the pitch that they were the best two.'

The invention is fully patented and owned by Mr Haines's Guernsey-registered company. He is currently marketing the light on the Continent and in Asia.

There are more inventions in the pipeline, including a safer fuel system for vehicles.

Mr Haines also lays claim to being the man behind the child-safety cap on medicine bottles. But, aged just 21, he was told pharmaceutical companies would never invest and he did not patent the concept.

'Seven years later, the design was on all bottles. Funnily enough, they said the same thing about the SafeTlight.'

Mr Haines is a big fan of sailing and has spent the past nine years cruising Channel Island waters. He hopes to move to the island within the next few years.