AN INVENTOR has told how he invented the UK’s first self-cleaning toilet brush and unveiled it on TV’s Dragons’ Den.

Tom Keen, 27, hit on the idea after moving into a new flat and finding a “disgusting” old loo brush.

He said: “I cannot believe that we as humanity have put a man on the moon and yet we use this poo stick to clean the toilet.”

He invented a brush whose head detaches an is placed under the toilet rim after use.

It is then cleaned with each flush.

When the brush is needed again, the wand, which is attached to the wall, can be reconnected to the head.

Mr Keen, from Lyndhurst, showed his prototype on Dragons’ Den and won the support of Touker Suleyman and Sara Davies.

Touker had already invested in a toilet business but Sara wanted to invest in the idea, revealing that her two-year-old mistakenly confused her toilet brush for a hair brush.

The inventor was seeking £50,000 investment in return for 20 per cent of his company and he secured all the money in return for 33 per cent of his company Flush Brush Limited.

The brush had been developed after Mr Keen approached the Andover-based design company Idea Reality Ltd with a rough idea.

Idea Reality then helped him turn it into a product.

Idea Reality design director James Lamb said: “After three iterations of prototypes we were satisfied we had a workable product.”

Mr Keen took the prototype to a toilet and bathroom show in Birmingham on his 26th birthday – and then got a call from Dragons’ Dean asking him to present his idea in just 28 days’ time.

He wanted to have the best possible version of the prototype for the show and Idea Reality used a 3D printer to help it carry out the changes that had been identified as a result of the industry feedback.

Mr Lamb said: “A lot of research and development happened during those 28 days, and an Ultimaker 3D printer printed day and night to create up to 30 new parts of the product.

“We wanted to give the inventor the best chance of succeeding in the show so we put all the feedback together and worked with magnets to overcome a few issues that needed improvement,” he added.

“Being a small company meant that we could focus entirely on the invention.

“Had we not had our in-house printing capability, we would not have been able to achieve this tight deadline”

Mr Lamb said that “after a lot of sweat and tears”, a prototype was perfected ready for the inventor to take it in front of the ‘dragons’ on the BBC show, where his pitch the potential investors attracted interest.

Mr Keen now plans to crowdfund the product to get the manufacturing started.

He intends to take orders this month and have get the brush to customers by next spring.