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Property investor accused of shutting down criticism over £10,000 courses

A property investor who runs courses costing upwards of £10,000 to help people become “financially free” has been accused of using his wealth and the UK’s claimant-friendly libel laws to shut down criticism of his methods.

Samuel Leeds’s solicitors’ Ellisons have issued legal proceedings or threats of lawsuits against at least 15 individuals or property websites that the Guardian is aware of.

A section on Leeds’s YouTube channel, which has more than 260,000 subscribers, is titled “Buying houses with no money”, while the website of Leeds’s company Property Investors suggests: “Anybody can become financially free within 12 months or less by investing in property.” Leeds frequently criticises his detractors in videos but has also responded in other ways.

A legal letter was sent to Carrie Jones, the sister of Danny Butcher, a soldier from Doncaster who killed himself after paying £13,000 for training with Property Investor. Butcher’s family said he was in debt before doing the training course and never made the money he thought he would from it. The letter, which Jones described as a “scare tactic” from the investor, accused her and other family members of involvement in a campaign of “defamation and harassment”.

Jones was unhappy that the letter referred to contact with Nick Fletcher, the MP for Don Valley, about her brother’s case.

“I can speak to whoever I like,” she said. “I was gobsmacked and annoyed at the fact that he had the audacity to sort of sending me a message to tell me to shut up when he can’t even have the decency to speak to Danny’s family. I thought that was quite shocking and disrespectful.”

Ellisons said Leeds had been advised not to speak to Butcher’s family because he had been subjected to an “unlawful campaign of defamation and harassment”.

The firm told the letter was sent after “months of defamatory comments” by Jones, which she denies. Ellisons initially offered to send the Guardian a schedule of alleged defamatory comments but later declined to do so.

The letter warned Jones about contact with Andrew Burgess and other investor involved in a Facebook group concerned with Leeds, who are together being sued for more than £6m by Leeds for alleged harassment and defamation. He is seeking a six-figure sum in a separate lawsuit against Vanessa Warwick, the co-founder of the Property Tribes website.

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