Duncan Bannatyne's daughter threatened online

Reward: Dragons' Den star Duncan Bannatyne has offered a £30,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the blackmailer targeting his daughter, Hollie (left)
12 April 2012

Dragons' Den star Duncan Bannatyne has pledged to do everything in his power to ensure a blackmailer targeting his daughter was caught.

Police are investigating after threats were made via email and on Twitter.

The 62-year-old entrepreneur, philanthropist and author used Twitter to offer a £30,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the person involved.

Durham Police said the threats appeared to originate from an email address based in Russia.

A spokesman for the force said: "Durham Constabulary can confirm Duncan Bannatyne has reported a number of threatening messages he had received via email and Twitter in which threats were made against a member of his family.

"These appeared to originate from an email address based in Russia.

"We have been liaising since then with Mr Bannatyne and conducting inquiries into the credibility of these threats."

Bannatyne, whose business is based in Darlington, issued a statement which said: "My family is well protected but I take any threat to them very seriously and will do all I can to ensure the person or people involved are caught."

Reports said that Bannatyne had deleted tweets after offering a £50,000 reward for anyone who broke the arms of the man issuing the threats.

They said that someone calling himself Yuri Vasilyev tweeted Bannatyne three days ago, saying: "I'm looking for a £35,000 investment to stop us hurting your Hollie Bannatyne. We will bring hurt and pain into your life. We are watching her. She is very attractive. Want photos?"

Bannatyne is said to have told his more than 350,000 Twitter followers: "I offer £25,000 reward for the capture of the coward who calls himself @YuriVasilyev- Double if his arms are broken first."

He added: "I am serious btw [by the way]. I think he is in Moscow."

Some Twitter users criticised him for appearing to solicit violence, and he then deleted the tweets and changed his offer to "£30,000 reward for info leading to his arrest", the reports said.

Bannatyne, who was born in Clydebank, Scotland, has business interests including health clubs, hotels, media, TV, stage schools, property and transport.

He has received the OBE for his contribution to charity and supports many good causes, especially for children.

He is heavily involved with Comic Relief and Unicef, and is a passionate anti-smoking campaigner.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in