Rival sex therapists in tussle over £2m
THEY may talk the language of love – but a pair of sex therapists are at war over claims of fraud and threats of violence.
Siobhain Crosbie alleges her former friend Caroline Ley has stolen her clients and cost her almost £2million.
Mrs Ley, a ‘kink-aware’ therapist who specialises in sex and porn addictions, has made her own claims that Miss Crosbie threatened to ‘break her legs’ and talked of slitting her throat or hiring a hitman to deal with her.
The row is now apparently beyond the powers of any counsellor – so the women are heading to the High Court to settle it.
They met in 2005 and for a time worked together in Miss Crosbie’s practice – APS Psychotherapy and Counselling in South Woodford, east London.
Miss Crosbie – who offers help for transgender issues and sexual dysfunction at £100 a session – claims that after her friend left the APS premises, she noticed a sudden fall in the number of calls from prospective clients.
She says she later discovered that listings for APS on a psychotherapy experts website and a Google directory had Mrs Ley’s phone number instead of hers. In legal papers, Miss Crosbie claims Mrs Ley, 49, was ‘passing off’ her rival practice as APS to ‘redirect prospective clients’.
So many clients were poached, she claims, that she is now demanding £1.42million to make up for the business taken from her, plus £456,000 in interest so far, with an extra £311 per day until the case is settled.
Mrs Ley, now director of the Cherry Tree Therapy Centre in Buckhurst Hill, Essex, denies she created misleading directory entries and blames an ‘erroneous automated process’ on Google.
In documents lodged at the High Court, she has launched counter claims of defamation, complaining that Miss Crosbie falsely accused her of confessing to police.
She also claims Miss Crosbie wrote on Facebook that ‘clients are not safe with any therapist that commits the level of fraud she did. She needs stopping’. And Mrs Ley says that her old friend ‘placed her in fear of violence’.
She quotes Miss Crosbie as saying in a series of electronic messages: ‘The underlying message is I slit your throat the next time you try to slit my therapists’ wallets lol. But I’m more professional than threatening death...
‘Otherwise, it’s other avenues like a hitman lol. And yes it’s taken its toll, my patience ran out tonight... I break her legs lol.’
Mrs Ley claims the threats lost her income due to her ‘reduced capacity to see clients’.
Miss Crosbie denies any suggestion she defamed or threatened her former friend. The case is due to come to trial this year.
‘She needs stopping’