Dear Lighthouse,
Thank you for your invitation to get in touch with you with questions from this article>. As you have noticed I have, as requested contacted you through the Contact Us page on your website (proof >).
You can find my questions below. You are welcome to respond via an article on your Community website or privately to me via letter or email. Please be as detailed as you can in your response.
(1) Taking LIG to Court “Invitation”
It’s a shame that the Lighthouse invitation to meet has changed from a come to Paul Waugh’s house in Southampton with 20-30 of his followers for a party to an “invitation” to “meet us in court”.
I also note that you see those who have grievances with you but do not sue you to have an “unhealthy agenda based on selfish motives, greed and hate“.
However can you explain what the point would be to sue Lighthouse International Group LLP or their individual mentor? As Companies House for the LLP confirms (details >) the senior leadership have not even put £1 into the partnership. The LLP also does not own the Lighthouse brand, logo, website, domain name, social media channels, any business contracts, this 18yrs of “research” or the database of contacts which apparently is 70,000 people strong. These assets are shielded from any legal action the LLP may receive as they are the leaderships private property.
Therefore can you explain why it would be wise for someone to instruct solicitors to sue Lighthouse paying many hundreds of pounds to get the case open, pay the hearing fee, their legal team some £5,000 – £10,000 in costs, go through all the stress spending countless hours preparing for the case only to secure a court judgement for monies that can never be collected on?
Yes the individual may well secure a court judgement for a 100% refund, along with an order for their legal and court fee’s to be refunded but it wont be paid.
Proof that Lighthouse operate in a financially irresponsible way is shown below with a June 2019 court judgement secured against Lighthouse International Group just being ignored. Presumably this poor sod was also baited into suing and only later found out it was a waste of time and money.
I’m sure a number of individuals would have taken legal action had the LLP not been setup in this legal action deterrent way with perhaps just some of the £25,000 that an Associate Elect “invests into the business” retained in the business vs sucked out entirely as personal income by the owners.
You may also wish to correct the statement “Why hasn’t even one lawsuit been filed against the company in 18 years, even despite this trolling?” as public records prove otherwise.
Taking legal action against at least a good number of the individual mentors also appears to be just as futile as explained on this page > and with my own personal experience in securing a court judgement against Kris Deichler as these individuals appear to operate in a financially irresponsible way, not even entering into a re-payment plan with the poor sod that the court has ordered them to refund / pay their bill on and so the article stating “I am writing this under my real name” and “am also able to be held accountable” rings hollow.
(2) Anonymous Posting
Since Spring 2021 it has been clearly evident that Lighthouse has been frustrated by those on Reddit and elsewhere online who have been using user names and not their real names when posting about their LIG experience, giving their point of view and sharing notes/information with others.
A practice that you refer to as “trolling” and claim that the individuals who do so are “out to destroy you” and are mentally ill individuals. Yet the two former “Associate Elects” you have identified and myself have been repeatedly shamed on Reddit and via numerous articles on your community website.
There also seems to be some pride in trying to strong arm their employer to potentially have them reprimanded, perhaps fired and perhaps even having their career ruined.
In this post > two Lighthouse mentors or “fans” try to compare one former “Associate Elect” with a paedophile and so based on these kind of responses are you saying you struggle to see why others do not raise their hands and post under their real name?
Is it Lighthouse’s position that LIG had created a fertile environment for people to openly express their stories / concerns / thoughts based on what has just been mentioned plus the ongoing threats of the police are coming, you’re going to jail, LIG is going to sue you narrative?
As this article shows in the LIG world even legitimate commentary/suggestions gets suppressed.
(3) Civil & Criminal Investigations
I have been advised by Kris Deichler as early as November 2020 that just sharing my experience with other former LIG mentees/clients in private conversations is behaviour that may lead to the Lighthouse legal team suing me for damages to the Lighthouse reputation and lost earnings.
It was also made clear in Kris’ December 2021 article that I am a “criminal troll” and so in your cross hairs for both your civil investigation and the criminal one that you claim that is “coming along well” and being led by the police.
Both investigations are of great concern and so I would like to begin mitigating my circumstances and so please can you confirm the law firm that you have instructed to investigate so called “trolls” such as myself so that I can speak with them to find out which specific comments/articles/private conversations related to Lighthouse I am about to be sued over.
Furthermore being that it is said that my comments and interactions with others on Reddit is “criminal trolling” please can you confirm the Crime Reference Number that the police gave you and the police officer who has been assigned the case so that I can find out which behaviour I am under investigation for.
Providing the above information is to your benefit as if after receiving the above and taking my own legal advice it is clear that my comments/articles/this website is criminal in nature or is exposing me to large financial redress one day then I will be looking to proactively mitigate my situation by making changes / removing content.
On a related note you claim that the police have already reached out / visited some individuals. Being that arrest let alone the charge stage is public knowledge (with high profile cases often repeated in the media) please can you confirm who has been visited by the police?
Plus being that the Lighthouse “legal team” and those involved with the company have been monitoring Reddit since Spring 2021 please can you confirm the Reddit user names of those who have had a less then desirable LIG experience but are not “trolls” or “band wagon jumpers” or is it the LIG position that all 56 members of the LIG subreddit (found here >) are “criminal trolls“?
(3) Lighthouse Annual Sales
Many including myself appear baffled about the business structure that Lighthouse International Group has (my full article here >).
Being that Paul Waugh stated in that LIG have “50 to 60 partners” (source >) and based on my six years in the Lighthouse community and the recent authors of the Lighthouse community website articles it seems clear that there are at least 20 Associate Partners/Elects who are full timers yet Lighthouse International Group is not registered for VAT.
Something which as HMRC states here > is mandatory when sales exceed £85,000 a year.
Therefore please can you elaborate on how Lighthouse is legitimately structed so it does not have to charge VAT on it’s per hour mentoring / courses / Associate Elect sales? If the reason is that LIG annual sales do not exceed the £85k figure then would it be accurate to say that with £85,000 divided by 20 individuals the average mentor makes sales of just £4,250 per year?!
Being that mentors do not keep all of the monies from the sales they make and there are always cost associated with such sales the average mentor over recent years has an income of £4,000 per year?
(4) Regulation & Accreditation
Through this Gov.uk petition (found here >) Paul Waugh has made it clear that he see’s that the personal development industry is in need of an official regulator and for all companies in the industry to abide by a formal code of conduct however since the origin of Lighthouse International Group to this present day LIG has not joined any trade association in the counselling/mental health space such as a the British Association of Counselling or National Counselling Society as well as not required any of it’s mentors to have any formal training in this fields. Please can you explain why you have decided neither are necessary?
Furthermore being that Lighthouse confirms that those in it’s community and those it mentors that there are cases of those with horrific background traumas such as being sexually molested from within the family or from a priest, others have been in an abusive relationship in the past and others with trauma from absent or flawed parenting please can you explain why Lighthouse has decided it is responsible to operate without professional indemnity insurance?
Something that would give the mentee peace of mind and protection from the often life changing advice they receive. As you may re-call I have already raised this point on your Facebook post (here >) but it was swiftly deleted, presumably as it was seen as “trolling“.
(5) Lighthouse Kidz Funds
As explained in full detail in this article > I am struggling to see through the Lighthouse Kidz annual accounts on Companies House (here >) that the £10,000+ raised in 2015 and 2016 via the “Football 4 Water” charitable campaign where it was said that all monies (perhaps minus train fare for the organisers) was going to be passed onto those in the world in desperate need of clean drinking water via a reputable clean water charity such as Water Aid was in fact passed on.
As it looks like every single year including the 2015 and 2016 years Lighthouse Kidz has not traded and not taken any funds and so please can you provide evidence to prove that all donations were recorded and indeed passed on?
I ask as I would like to ensure that my article is as accurate as possible and once evidence has been produced to prove everything is in order I will be sure to update it to reflect that.
(6) Meeting on Neutral Terms
As stated on the Meeting Lighthouse page some on Reddit have been keen to meet Lighthouse at a neutral location and with the presence of an organisation that specialises in cults and/or those dealing with trauma. Based on this statement “We are still waiting for any cult expert or authorities to take us up on our offer to come and investigate and interview us.” you are open to the idea?
Also being the ongoing assertion that Lighthouse is open, has nothing to hide and “the truth needs no defence” saying that I used to hear a lot, Lighthouse is also open to a recorded question and answer session where former clients, partners and the loved ones of those currently involved with Lighthouse (also known as “trolls“) can have their questions answered? Also please confirm that having the unedited recording uploaded to YouTube is agreeable with you also?
Questions Caveat
I note that the article says: “if there is anyone with any genuine healthy questions about what is written here, please feel free to contact us using our contact page“.
Therefore if one or more of my questions are not deemed “genuine” and/or “healthy” please let know which ones and kindly be specific on where they are sinister/destructive/invalid etc as I am more then willing to consider your feedback, reflect on it and potentially re-word or withdraw it.