No deal with dragons

A FORMER Dragons' Den contestant has yet to see a penny from his multi-millionaire backers. Chris Haines secured a £95,000 investment from BBC TV show 'dragons' Deborah Meaden and Theo Paphitis for his Guernsey-based company in December.

But he said it had been tied up in red tape and he had not received any cash or had direct contact with them. After more than six months, the deal was 'still under negotiations'.

Multi-multimillionaire Mr Paphitis, the chairman of stationers Ryman, hit back by insisting he was ready to pay the money, but had not heard from Mr Haines for nearly three months.

The show sees hopeful inventors pitch their products to a trio of multi-millionaires, who decide whether to invest in exchange for a share in the profits.

Mr Haines persuaded Ms Meaden and Mr Paphitis to invest £47,500 each in exchange for 30% of profits from his invention, the SafeTlight.

He had the idea after his mother almost fell down the stairs of her Fort George home during a power cut.

The device is a battery-operated, rechargeable low-level light, with a sensor that detects when darkness has fallen. It doubles as an emergency torch.

'That handshake viewers see on the show doesn't actually mean anything,' he said yesterday.

'They gave me a 34-page contract, which was full of ridiculous clauses such as not being able to write cheques by myself for more than £2,000.'

Mr Paphitis, who said he travelled to Guernsey regularly on business, said Dragons' Den wasn't about winning a prize. 'This is a real business show with people putting their own money in,' he said.

'As investors, we are going to become minority shareholders, so obviously we want to do things properly.

'Chris was given a standard contract, like everybody else. We tell people that it may look daunting at first, but go through it with their solicitor and work with us on any specific issues.

'But it hasn't even got that far with Chris. We haven't heard back from him since his last email on 16 March and we are still waiting.'

Mr Haines has already sold 10,000 safeTlights and has just received an order from a major supermarket group for another 10,000. He said that he was now 'exploring other options'.

He also admitted that he had immediate doubts about whether the deal with the dragons had been good for him.

He also said he not had personal contact with them since filming and only dealt with their representatives.

Mr Paphitis insisted that he did get involved personally with all the contestants.

'He doesn't get me full-time running his business, but he would have had the benefit of my mentoring and my entire team, had we got that far,' he said.

'If he wasn't happy in the first place, then he should have said before. No-one wants to do business with someone who isn't happy.'

The BBC said it did not get involved with the contestants and investors of Dragon's Den after a deal had been struck on the show.