Company still trading as key figure starts prison sentence.
Nicola Fletcher, the founder of hi-viz brand Equisafety, has been jailed for two years after admitting blackmail.
Fletcher, from Barnston, in Wirral, Merseyside, was also banned from contacting a former employee indefinitely under a restraining order.
Details of the hearing at Chester Crown Court have been widely reported in the national press. Coverage highlights Fletcher’s 2015 appearance on TV’s Dragons’ Den which scooped her a £100,000 investment.
When ETN contacted Equisafety, we were told that the company is still trading.
“We’re very much still in business,” said Edward, who declined to give his surname.
“In fact, we took 150 orders over the weekend [14/15 December] - and that wasn’t just because it’s Christmas, it’s because the products speak for themselves.”
Edward added that he is a close friend of Fletcher’s and is running Equisafety for her while she’s in HMP Styal, a women’s prison in Wilmslow, Cheshire.
“Nicky currently has no association with the company and, from conversations with her, she’s going to take a step back,” he said. “But the business isn’t going to stop.”
On Monday, 16 December, Nicola Fletcher was listed as a director of Equisafety Ltd.
Some national press reports of the case can be seen here:
https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/bbc-dragons-den-winner-who-34320198
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/32345894/dragons-den-winner-jailed-blackmail
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Photo by KATRIN BOLOVTSOVA
