Duncan Bannatyne offers £50k reward to followers who hurt blackmailing Tweeter

Dragons’ Den star Duncan Bannatyne yesterday offered £25,000 for the capture of a man threatening to kidnap his daughter for ransom.

And in a sensational twist, the Scottish businessman offered to double the money if “his arms are broken first”.

Multi-millionaire entrepreneur Bannatyne, 62, was sent a link by a twisted individual using the name Yuri Vasilyev who claimed to be watching Hollie Bannatyne, 25.

Vasilyev said: ”I’m looking for a 335,000 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?

”Tweet using the hashtag #4money to confirm payment will be made.

Furious father-of-six Bannatyne replied by tweeting a request that one of his 370,000 followers inflict physical pain on the could-be kidnapper.

He said: ”I offer a £25,000 reward for the capture of the coward who calls himself @YuriVasilyev_ Double if his arms are broken first.

”I am serious btw (by the way). I think he is in Moscow.”

When questioned whether he’d be seen as an accomplice to any potential crime committed, the tough Scot replied: ”I’d gladly do my time.”

But he later removed this from his Twitter feed, instead offering £30,000 for information leading to their arrest.

In a statement he 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.”

Hundreds of Bannatyne’s followers offered the tough Scot their support via the social network – attempting to track Twitter user ‘@yurivasilyev_’ down.

Others likened the incident to the action film ‘Taken’ where Liam Neeson travels to Europe to track down the traffickers who kidnapped his daughter.

Durham Constabulary revealed they were investigating claims the family of millionaire businessman Duncan Bannatyne had been threatened.

A spokesperson 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 enquiries into the credibility of these threats.”