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Could you be locked up just for posting a negative restaurant review online?

Judging by the threats being issued by a firm of lawyers, it’s a distinct possibility.

On the receiving end is mother and part-time nurse Sarah Gardner, who was unhappy with a picturesque restaurant and wedding reception venue near Tunbridge Wells, Kent, called High Rocks.

She described the staff as rude when trying to make a booking and the food as “mediocre at best” and gave it one star on TripAdvisor.

High Rocks denies any rudeness, and the majority of other reviews are positive.

But some customers have not been unimpressed and they should not be threatened by lawyers merely for voicing their opinion.

Yet after posting her review Sarah heard from London law firm Cohen Davis Solicitors, run by media lawyer Yair Cohen.

“The material you have posted about our client on TripAdvisor.com is defamatory and therefore unlawful,” it wrote to her in an 11-page letter marked ‘Strictly not for publication’.

The lawyers claimed that this single review had caused “financial harm worth tens of thousands of pounds” adding: "Our client will pursue you for aggravated damages to compensate it for the full extent of its financial losses”.

They then made a series of demands including the dates of all Sarah’s visits to the venue, the details of her fellow guests and her meal receipts – as if anyone keeps those for months or years.

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(Image: Daily Mirror)

And they attached a made-up draft of a court injunction which began: “PENAL NOTICE: If you, Sarah Gardner, do not comply with this order you may be held in contempt of court and may be imprisoned or fined.”

To say Sarah was knocked sideways by the prospect of being dragged to the High Court is an understatement.

“I’m a nervous wreck,” she says, describing her initial review as “pretty innocuous”.

But she is standing by her comments, and replied to Cohen Davis quoting the then Justice minister Shailesh Vara who said in 2013 that libel law changes “will make it harder for wealthy people or companies to bully or silence those who may have fairly criticised them or their products”.

(Image: Daily Mirror)

Cohen Davis, which boasts on its website: “There is a very good chance that we can help you to permanently remove offending web pages" hit back with another letter, 14 pages this time.

“We note your purported defences of ‘honest opinion’ or ‘truth’,” they wrote.

“This, of course, is a matter for you to prove.”

However, under the 2013 Defamation Act, is it up to the claimant to prove that they’ve suffered “serious harm”.

The lawyers then extended their demands to include Sarah handing over “copies of all private messages that you exchanged with internet users concerning your reviews”.

The letter ended: “If you have not done so we urge you to obtain independent professional legal advice”.

Sarah replied: “I posted an honest review.

“Your client could have chosen to engage with it and leave their own comment beneath, which would have given their version of events.

“Instead they pursued the nuclear option of threatening litigation.”

It seems that Sarah is not the only person to be threatened like this.

A couple say they removed their review because: “We were then sent a letter before action by High Rocks’ solicitors threatening to bring proceedings against us for malicious falsehood.”

Cohen Davis denied approaching any other customers of the restaurant.

They said that they would be taking Sarah’s case to the High Court, and for good measure warned the Mirror: “It would be highly inappropriate and libellous for your paper to repeat any of Ms Gardner’s libellous allegations”.

Fraudster was a very nice man

(Image: National Trading Standards)

I first came across Cohen Davis Solicitors after they tried to silence online critics of an outfit called Wyvern Media.

This was a fraud which netted £7million annually by conning small businesses into paying for adverts in publications that did not exist.

I told last November how the law firm’s Yair Cohen insisted “we don’t try to oppress people”.

But one victim described its action in the High Court to force websites to hand over details of people who posted negative comments as “a scandalous use of the law”.

The ringleader of Wyvern Media was 55-year-old Jonathan Rivers, from Birmingham, who was jailed for five years last October.

Mr Cohen described Rivers as “a very nice man” and says his conviction came as a “complete shock”.

On Friday last week, Rivers was ordered at a Proceeds of Crime hearing to hand over £1.2million to compensate victims.

“Some of the victims lost their homes and businesses over their involvement with Wyvern Media and this result goes some way to helping them to rebuild their lives,” said James Delaney of the National Trading Standards Regional Investigation Team (East Midlands).

Carbon con client jailed

I also came into contact with Cohen Davis after reporting that German police had issued an international arrest warrant for 36-year-old Mohsin Salya, from Preston, in connection with a £100million tax evasion fraud related to European Union carbon emission trades.

“The article gives the impression that our client is a fraudster, that he is involved in a scam, that he is trying to avoid being spoken to by the German authorities and that he is in fact a fugitive, all of which is untrue,” they wrote.

“No prosecution has been brought against him in relation to the matters mentioned in the article and it is very likely that no proceedings will ever be brought against him as he completely denies all the allegations mentioned in the article.”

In fact, as I reported in March, Mohsin Salya was jailed in Germany for three years and three months.

Have you been threatened by lawyers after posting a negative review? Email me at investigate@mirror.co.uk