Anger over C4’s free publicity to cocaine shame boss behind ‘Mansion Hunters’
CHANNEL 4 has been accused of giving free publicity to controversial estate agents whose staff include a convicted cocaine dealer and a developer who left pensioners millions of pounds out of pocket.
Mega Mansion Hunters, a documentary series about Tyron Ash estate agents, features employees who claim to drive supercars and live a champagne lifestyle funded by commission from the firm’s £300 million in high-end property sales.
Ofcom last night said it had received complaints about the programme, and Channel 4 was challenged to reveal what vetting had been carried out.
Mega Mansion Hunters is based on an estate agents founded by Tyron Ashraf, 36, in 2019 – four years after he was given a 40-month prison sentence for cocaine possession with intent to supply.
In contrast to traditional firms, Mr Ashraf’s agents – who are self-employed and
work on a commission-only basis – cold-call potential clients using the listings of rival firms to find leads.
The strategy claims to be highly effective, with the show’s narrator stating that Tyron Ash has secured sales worth £300million. The impression is that commission has made its agents rich, but documents at Companies House suggest otherwise.
According to those accounts, Mr Ashraf only has net corporate assets of £444. Last night, Mr Ashraf said that accounts for his business show just £444 because ‘launching a business on a national scale means that a large bulk of turnover is then reinvested into the growth of the business’, and that in future they will show ‘everything that needs to be shown as we evolve’.
He added that as his agents are self-employed, they are free to manage their finances as they see fit.
One of the 65 agents at Tyron Ash is Oliver Mason. Last year the High Court shut down seven of his companies after investors were left more than £20million out of pocket in pensions and savings when they collapsed. The Insolvency Service described Mr Mason’s behaviour as ‘highly misleading’.
Former personal trainer Sophie Leigh, 27, joined Tyron Ash in 2020 and excitedly describes how she had a ‘Brazilian bum lift’ to restore her confidence after suffering an injury playing American football. But she does not mention either her previous work as a naked cleaner for Bare All Cleaning Service on Australia’s Gold Coast, nor her conviction in 2018 for drink driving.
Another agent, Adam Maxy, was last year charged with organising an illegal rave attended by more than 400 people who broke into a 500-yearold church, causing thousands of pounds worth of damage.
The series was launched this month and received 500,000 viewers for its first episode. In the blurb for the show on its website, Channel 4 says: ‘Welcome to the glamorous world of luxury estate agents Tyron Ash –- where selling high-end homes
for big money can be a cutthroat business.’
But property consultant Alex Goldstein last night likened Mega Mansion Hunters to ‘disinformation’ and accused Channel 4 of being ‘irresponsible’ by failing to adequately probe the backgrounds of the firm and those featured in the series. ‘The property sector has been trying since the 1970s and 1980s to throw off the idea that agents are wide boys with shiny suits and fast cars,’ he said.
Stephanie Thorndycraft, 33, who worked for the firm while the show was being filmed but has now left, was equally critical of Channel 4 and Mr Ashraf, whose business she slammed.
‘I spent ten months working for that man, time away from my little boy, time away from my family and he still to this day owes me commission for a completed sale,’ she claimed.
Mr Ashraf said: ‘We do not understand the witch hunt being pursued against Tyron Ash and the agents that work with us.’
A Channel 4 spokesman said last night: ‘All Channel 4 programmes adhere to the broadcasting code.’