Soldier On Property Training Course Committed Suicide

Very sad news.
All regiments have a careers officer to whom a leaving military person should ensure thay have an interview to help with their resettlement. Careers officers will be able to steer applicants towards reliable and affordable training schemes.
Organisations such as XForces do this well.
Transitioning service personnel should take advise and recommendations from trusted organisations such as XForces who will advise a reliable and sound advice for their future.
Do not part with money until you have taken advice. The good schemes give good results .
Lord John Lown

There's a crucial difference between the two - you can't call yourself a university, charge £9k and then hand out whatever certificate you want at the end whereas with property training (or other wealth training) you can do pretty much whatever you want.
As landlords, we're coming under increasing pressure and scrutiny due to the problem landlords, yet they continue to ignore the rules and generally get away with it. I hope they do a better job regulating training, as it's now hard to tell the difference between the good trainers and the con merchants, apart from the good trainers probably promise less, charge more (or at least declare it's more at the start) and end up with few students. Having been to a free event and putting up with the very hard sell on the 2nd day, I doubt I'll ever pay for any training now, which limits me and doesn't help the professional trainers.

Reply to the comment left by Dino at 20/01/2020 - 14:59
You can also, at very least, call yourself a University graduate upon successful completion, which holds a little more water than a successful Samuel Leeds seminar/course attendee.

I think another important point here is that student loan debt is not the same as credit card, loan, or mortgage debt. Graduate's only make loan repayments once they earn beyond a certain threshold. In that sense student loan debt doesn't have the same burden or urgency of more "traditional" types of debt.
In this instance the poor man has parted with a significant sum of money, his pension lump sum no less which we could not get back. That could happen to anyone given the hard sell or vulnerable enough.
What I'm getting at is that handing over large sums of money for mickey mouse property training courses is not comparable to taking on a student loan for an accredited degree.

Mark,
I think you've missed a key point with this.
When people pay for a university course, the university delivers the education that was promised. There are also no guarantees of a job at the end of it and people accept it.
With the Samuel Leeds course, one of the key complaints is that the actual training isn't delivered. This why, according to the documentary, 70 people are seeking refunds totalling £200,000.
If you take a look at the facebook group "The truth about Samuel Leeds" you'll see some examples of how people paid £12k but didn't get what was promised with the actual training.
If I'm promised monthly one-to one mentoring phone calls and then only get a single phone call over 12 months, then yes, that would be mis-selling, which is what many people are claiming.
The reason the BBC didn't go after universities was most likely because universities actually deliver the education that they promise.

Not so much controversial, as more a bizarre comparison to make.
I doubt many would agree with your view.

Mark, there’s a Facebook group ‘The Truth About Samuel Leeds’ and is clear it is definitely high-pressure sales. He admits he makes more from his course-selling than property. We’re all experienced enough to know there’s no get-rich-quick tricks out there.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/794312204318704/permalink/892247641191826/

https://youtu.be/EZl-EvXI3EE

As several have noted, this comparison is bizarre and heartless. Universities don't promise untold wealth - they promise a university education, the value of which people accept is variable, with no guarantee of a job at the end of it, but at the very least you get the education you paid for.
With this scam the guy didn't deliver the education he promised. He claimed he would provide bespoke one to one sessions, but instead he hung up on people, and blocked them when they asked what was going on.

Really beneath you to defend this reprehensible person.

Just to be perfectly clear, I am NOT trying to defend Samuel Leeds here, nor am I looking to devalue University Education.

The question I was raising is this; Is it right that the media are using the excuse of a Soldier's suicide to further tarnish the Private Rented Sector?

Most people (me included) have the utmost respect for our Armed Forces.

And just to reiterate; Samuel Leeds only recently appeared on my radar. I know nothing about him or his business other than what I have seen on You Tube and in both mainstream and Social Media.

I would like to hear from anybody who has met him in person and completed his courses though.

Reply to the comment left by Mark Alexander at 21/01/2020 - 19:36
Property 118 have had a thanks from him according to this;

https://www.propertytribes.com/samuel-leeds-bbc-inside-out-investigation-t-127644724-lastpost.html#pid426243