November 2017: A paedophile who once appeared on Dragon’s Den as a contestant will spend years longer in prison after judges ruled his original sentence was ‘unduly lenient’.

Richard Hazell, 49, of Hoddesdon, abused four young girls and when his business and home were searched police found thousands of indecent images of children.

The married man, who has a child of his own, was convicted of four sexual assaults and nine indecent images of children crimes and was jailed for four years and nine months at St Albans Crown Court in June.

After a review at the Court of Appeal yesterday (November 9), his sentence was increased to seven years and three months.

August 2017: Sentenced to 57 months in prison.

June 2017

Dragon’s Den contestant found with 3,000 sick child abuse pics on laptop guilty of sex attack on girl, 13

A FORMER Dragons’ Den contestant faces jail after being found guilty of a string of child sex offences.

Richard Hazell, who appeared on the BBC2 show in 2007 after inventing a diamond drill bit – which was rejected by the Dragons – appeared at St Albans Crown Court last week.

The 48-year-old, of Hoddesdon, Herts, was found guilty of a total of 13 charges, including two counts of sexual assault on a child under the age of 13 and seven counts of downloading indecent photos of children.

The married pervert, whose wife is divorcing him, was arrested on August 22 last year after the dad of a young girl he abused contacted social services and said his daughter – who is at primary school – had been sexually assaulted by Hazell.

Hazell, who runs a firm called 365 Drills from his £1.2million home, denied all the charges against him – which related to four different victims – but was found guilty this week.

The court heard how when cops searched his various computers at home, they found just under 3,000 indecent images of children.

Tim Forster, prosecution, told the court that police seized all but one of Hazell’s computers, leaving him with just one of his laptops.

He told the court that when officers returned to his home to seize the remaining laptop they found that on August 30 – just eight days after his initial arrest – they found he had entered a search on Google asking ‘Can you be found guilty for downloading child porn if the files are deleted on your computer’.

Asked why he had entered the search, Hazell told the court: “I did search that, I was worried about what the police might think instead of what actually happened.”

The prosecutor replied: “You have typed your own confession.”

Hazel was remanded in custody and will be sentenced on July 7.