An entrepreneur who successfully courted investment from millionaire investors on the TV show Dragon’s Den has been jailed for a crime described by CPS lawyers as “a particularly brazen and audacious fraud carried out on national television”.

In a statement, the Service said that Jean-Claude Baumgartner had claimed to own software vital to the business opportunity he pitched – and had gone on to fabricate evidence of advance orders of his GPS product from retailers including Harrods.

But the 50-year-old was jailed for two years and eight months after admitting a fraud allegation ahead of his trial had faced a strong prosecution case.

Blackfriars Crown Court was told how Swiss-born Baumgartner had managed to attract £65,000 of investment from Peter Jones and Theo Paphitis after impressing the Den with his company SatSport, which he said provided navigation kit for the skiing community.

But despite careful checks carried out by the businessmen, Baumgartner’s fraudulent claims of ownership of the software for the SatNav system were not brought to light. He did not complete payments for ownership of the system until March 2010.

Baumgartner later provided investors with false emails claiming he had attracted large orders. But when the £100,000 loan was not repaid as agreed, the web of deceit unravelled.

Mark James-Dawson, Crown Advocate for the CPS, said: “This was a particularly brazen and audacious fraud, carried out on national television.

“Jean-Claude Baumgartner claimed to own software vital to the business opportunity he pitched on BBC’s Dragon’s Den, and went on to fabricate evidence of advance orders.

“It was clear that Baumgartner had come to rely on fraud as his only way of surviving in business, but when the Dragons asked for repayment of an agreed loan, his web of deceit began to unravel as it became clear that he had begun to live the life of a successful businessman before the business was a success.”

“Faced with the strength of the prosecution case, Baumgartner has decided to plead guilty ahead of the start of his trial and was sentenced to two years and eight months.”