A car dealership boss faces jail after being convicted of molesting four female employees at work.

Charles Philip Archer, who runs Archers of Ashby, was found guilty by a jury of 11 sex assaults involving three teenage girls and a woman in her 20s.

The 48-year-old denied the allegations, saying he was the victim of a "witch hunt" and the victims conspired against him.

He was acquitted of four further indecent assault offences.

Archer, formerly of Coalville, but now of Anglia Drive, Church Gresley, near Swadlincote, was released on bail until sentencing on October 1.

After the verdicts were announced at Leicester Crown Court yesterday, Judge Simon Hammond said: "I take a very serious view of this.

"He's been convicted, quite rightly on the evidence, of sexually assaulting and molesting four members of his female staff. During the trial, he made disparaging remarks against the complainants which was completely gratuitous.

"It's no coincidence the young women who gave evidence in court were all very pretty and very well turned out and they conducted themselves with great dignity.

"It's no way to treat female staff, taking advantage of them as his employees, and using his power as an employer, when they were all anxious to have their jobs.

"He touched them wholly inappropriately, showing no respect. I will be considering a prison sentence of some length."

Archer will now have to enlist on a sex offender register. He was given bail with strict conditions, including not to contact any of the complainants.

Mary Prior, prosecuting, told the judge after the verdicts were announced, that before the trial took place the defendant went to a nightclub, where one of the victims was present.

He spoke to her boyfriend saying he would "destroy" her in court.

The jury convicted Archer, who runs a Ford dealership employing 21 staff, of committing three of the offences unanimously, seven on majorities of 10–2 and one by 11–1.

The incidents happened at various times spanning a 20-year period from 1989.

Mrs Prior told the jury Archer was so "comfortable" about touching one girl's breasts he did so in a photo at a Christmas party, while his other arm was around his wife's waist. The photo, right, was shown to the jury.

Archer claimed he was tactile and possibly over-friendly towards his staff, but insisted he did not deliberately sexually touch the victims.

Giving evidence, he claimed several of the victims had been flirtatious, that one had told him she had been drinking all night and claimed another had taken drugs.

However, the witnesses, who were trainees, described how he would lean over their computers and touch them. The court heard that Archer put his hand inside the bra of a 17-year-old apprentice three days after she started work.

He later apologised by text, but some time later put his hand down her top and also down her trousers.

Archer pressed his groin against the bottom of a 16-year-old as she made a cup of tea and, in a different incident, touched the top of her breast.

He also touched a 17-year-old's stomach, and stroked her hair and neck and moved close as if he was about to kiss her, but she turned away. They said it made them upset and uncomfortable, one described him as making her feel creepy.