A second arrest has been made in an investigation into an alleged multi-million pound fraud at Duncan Bannatyne's business empire.
Graham Armstrong, 43, who previously worked as the chief executive and managing director at the TV Dragon's company, has been arrested on suspicion of fraud.
The Bannatyne Group, based in Darlington, County Durham, said the arrest related to a matter they themselves had reported to the police.
They said he had been suspended some time ago after they had launched their own investigation.
This follows the arrest last week of 45-year-old Christopher Watson, Mr Bannatyne's finance director.
A company spokesman said: "This news relates to a matter that the company informed the police about some time ago.
"The individual was suspended during the thorough investigation process. There has been no effect on the successful operation of the business."
Started by the celebrity entrepreneur in 1996, The Bannatyne Group runs health clubs and hotels across the country.
A Durham Constabulary spokesman said: "We can confirm a 43-year-old man was arrested on Wednesday, December 17 on suspicion of fraud.
"The investigation involves an alleged multi-million pound fraud on a Darlington-based business.
"The man has been bailed pending further enquiries."
Having appeared in the hit BBC show Dragon's Den since it started in 2005, Mr Bannatyne announced earlier this year that he would be leaving the show.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article