Dabs.com founder faces drugs and sex charges

9:58am Thursday 21st August 2008

A MILLIONAIRE businessman from Bolton has appeared in court charged with attempted rape and possession of Class A drugs.

David Atherton — the founder of Dabs.com, one of Bolton’s most successful online retail businesses — was in custody yesterday, after appearing at Bolton Magistrates Court on Tuesday.

Atherton, aged 50, of Victoria Road, Heaton, has been charged with attempted rape, possession of drugs, false imprisonment and making threats to kill.

The offences are alleged to have happened at around 4.45pm on Sunday. Magistrates remanded Atherton in custody and committed his case to Bolton Crown Court on October 31.

Mr Atherton, a former supermarket shelf-stacker from Leigh, is believed to have made up to £90 million when he sold Dabs.com, based on the Wingates Industrial Estate, to BT in 2006.

The company sells computer hardware and accessories through its internet web site Atherton set up the business in 1990 and was the sole owner.

He has since severed his links with the business.

It has around a million consumers across the UK, as well as a small operation in France.

In the year ended March 31, 2005, the company’s revenues were £180 million.

Atherton was a supermarket shelf stacker for a brief period after leaving school and founded his first business, Dabs Press in 1987.

pkeaveny@theboltonnews.co.uk