Reality TV Contestant Wrecks £100,000 Ferrari, Ends up in Jail

BBC One reality TV contestant Ross Mendham has been arrested for breaking the terms of his bail and smashing his £100,000 Ferrari. It was in 2013 that Mendham, 40, made an appearance on the competition show Dragons’ Den, where he sought £60,000 in return for a 20% stake in his food business from Peter Jones and Deborah Meaden.

Despite his “disappointing” pitch, which left him crying at one point, the entrepreneur, the son of former Norwich City footballer Peter Mendham, walked away with an investment deal from Jones for his low-calorie, low-carb venture, which is now being sold at supermarkets as Barenaked Foods.

Mendham was back in the news a decade later after getting arrested. CCTV cameras captured the car crash, which occurred around 5 p.m. on Sunday, reports Metro. He escaped without injury, but the accident footage shows the vehicle mounting the pavement and colliding into bicycle racks as a jogger passes. Immediately following the collision, the badly damaged Ferrari F430 veered back into the road before finally coming to a halt near the entrance of the city centre bar Rooftop Gardens on Rose Lane.

In a statement made available to MailOnline, a Norfolk Police spokesperson said, “Police were called to Rose Lane, Norwich at 4.58 p.m. on Sunday, March 17 following reports of a single vehicle collision. The road was closed whilst emergency services, including fire, attended the scene. No one was injured and the road reopened at 6.25 p.m.”

After being arrested for breaching his bail conditions, Mendham appeared in court on Monday, according to the Eastern Daily Press. His bail is related to an upcoming trial for allegedly knocking out his pregnant partner during a violent argument.

In this case, the incident allegedly occurred on Dec. 2 of last year, and according to reports, Mendham punched his partner in the face, which resulted in her losing consciousness. Mendham has denied the allegations. On Monday, he pleaded guilty to the breach of bail for not keeping his GPS tag charged.

According to the prosecution, the night-time curfew at his home in Cringleford, which was supposed to take place from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., was supposed to be monitored electronically. However, the defense argued that it was a technical breach caused by what they said was a short battery life caused by faulty equipment, reports Eastern Daily Press.

State magistrates re-imposed the same bail conditions on Mendham, and as a result, he was prohibited from leaving Norfolk pending further proceedings, according to reports. Norwich Crown Court will hear his trial on June 5 for the alleged assault.