Dragons' Den's 'queen of hi-vis' is jailed after she blackmailed ex-aide £6,000 for a reference
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A Dragon’s Den winner has been jailed after demanding £6,000 from a former employee for a good reference. When Lorraine Davies refused to pay, equestrian designer Nicola Fletcher, 49, repeatedly wrote bad references for her former friend, a court heard, leaving her unable to find a job for nine months.
![[Her firm, Equisafety Ltd, which creates hi-visibility wear for horse riders, has worked with dressage Olympians Charlotte Dujardin and Carl Hester]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/15/20/93174309-14195487-image-a-65_1734294730027.jpg)
Dubbed ‘the queen of high-vis’, Fletcher scooped £100,000 on the BBC show in 2015 after investments from Duncan Bannatyne and Piers Linney. Her firm, Equisafety Ltd, which creates hi-visibility wear for horse riders, has worked with dressage Olympians Charlotte Dujardin and Carl Hester.
![[She repeatedly tried to extort her former assistant Lorraine (pictured)]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/15/20/93174305-14195487-image-a-66_1734294738834.jpg)
But she had wanted to ‘bury’ her former assistant in what she later told police had been ‘a fit of fury’, the court was told. The dispute stemmed from an employment tribunal brought by Mrs Davies following a row at Badminton Horse Trials over mould in her accommodation, which led to her leaving the firm.
Under the terms of an out-of-court settlement, Fletcher had to pay £3,000 in costs plus a further £3,000 in termination and bonus payments, along with an assurance she would provide her former aide with a good reference. Yet when mother-of-two Mrs Davies was subsequently offered a job at a veterinary hospital and quoted Fletcher as a referee, she got a letter from her ex-boss offering ‘a reference full of lies in exchange for the value of the settlement or a reference full of truth’.
