Dragon slayer Tony Earnshaw driven by Ferrari fantasy

Jul 25 2010 by Michael Kelly, Sunday Sun

AS a 12-year-old lad Tony Earnshaw was in the back of a police car waiting to be taken from his foster parents to a council care home when a Ferrari sports car flashed by.

He told the officer: “I can’t wait to get one of those.”

According to Tony the officer replied: “Son, where you are going, there is only one way to get one of those - you would have to steal it”.

He said the words have has stayed with him ever since. Fast forward 13 years and he is on Dragons’ Den, the hit BBC TV programme for wannabe entrepreneurs - although more often, a graveyard for dreams.

He and colleague Steve Pearson deliver a smooth presentation asking for £100,000 so they can take their commercial cleaning business nationwide.

On the panel was North East-based tycoon Duncan Bannatyne, who offers the full £100,000 for a 35% in the business, which they accept. A further 12 months on, with Duncan’s regular input, the company has won new contracts worth around £2m and the future is looking very bright for Tony. A far cry from when he walked into the council care home.

He described how there were metal bars on the windows while in the pool room the cues were chained to the floor so they couldn’t be used as weapons in fights.

Tony said: “Don’t get me wrong, the staff were very good and tried their best to make you feel at home. But at that age it is still the last place you want to be.”

Without naming names, he said one fellow resident at the time suffered a drug-related death while others have fallen into a life of crime. But Tony went a different way. He persuaded the man in charge of the care home in County Durham to let him go to Biddick Comprehensive School near his former family home in Washington, Tyne and Wear.