A POOLE entrepreneur has appeared on the BBC's Dragons Den with purple hair and armed with Space Putty.

Jeremy Whitticase, from Penn Hill, entered the den as his alter ego Professor Putty to ask the multi-millionaire dragons for £75,000 in return for a 15 per cent stake in his business Impact Items Ltd.

His chief product is Space Putty, a mouldable substance similar to Silly Putty, which stretches like rubber, bounces like a ball, tears like paper, and can shatter like a ceramic.

He calls it "chewing gum for the hands" which can aid concentration, co-ordination and reduce stress - as well as being good fun.

The 41-year-old, who appeared in Monday night's episode of the BBC2 programme, says he was approached by scouts for the show. But he was given short shrift by the fearsome dragons, who refused to invest.

Duncan Bannatyne rejected the offer saying: "I don't think it's Professor Putty, I think it's Professor Potty." He added: "You're going to look back on this and laugh."

But the father of two, who launched his business in 2006, remains undeterred.

He told the Echo: "I think I probably got off the lightest. Some people were lambasted with quite savage put-downs."

Jeremy, who has a background in pharmaceutical sales, and moved to Poole some six years ago, and has experimented with a few business ventures in the past.

He said: "With Space Putty there are really so many markets I could go for. It's the first really big product I've had success with."

He added: "I went on to get investment and get the dragons on board and if that didn't happen I hoped to get some exposure.

"With the exposure we've received just in the 24 hours following the show, I think Space Putty and Impact Items could double if not treble its turnover from last year."

Jeremy said £4.95 pots of Space Putty are available through a number of web outlets including iwantoneofthose.com where he sold 30,000 pots in eight weeks before Christmas.