"Devastating" posts on 'hate' forum

by DOUGLAS SHEPHERD

Avocet Group chairman and Genfro life president Martin Frost has branded the shareholders' forum which bears the company's name a "fraudulent hate contrivance" soon after the group's activities were roundly criticised by the founder of a share trading venue and by a former senior employee of Avocet.

Now, according to Mr Frost: "The Director of Public Prosecutions in England & Wales is reviewing the Avocet PUBLIC Forum as an illegal hate website. Obviously, all that frequent this hate website are monitored."

The controversial businessman has previously pledged to have the Forum shut down. And last week he referred to Not Just Sheep & Rugby as 'Bill Chisholm's loony blog'.

Until relatively recently Mr Frost was telling investors in the 'disruptive technology' business that shares would be traded on the Asset Match platform, a London-based concern set up and chaired by Stuart Lucas.

Mr Lucas personally holds 756,000 shares in Avocet Infinite PLC (now known as Omega Infinite) which was placed into compulsory liquidation during 2020. Liquidators Begbies Traynor say creditors of Omega are claiming a total of more than £20 million.

In addition Asset Match itself owns 104,000 Avocet shares while at the same time Loch Lomond Heritage Ltd., another company controlled by Mr Frost, has 52,084 shares in Asset Match.

The Avocet Shareholders' Forum on which critics of Mr Frost and his fellow directors frequently discuss the business's perceived failings has recently been abuzz with speculation over unidentified investors Parachute Holdings and their front man 'Tim Carter'. Mr Frost says PCH will invest many millions of pounds in the 'revolutionary' new fuel being promoted by Avocet and now Genfro.

There have been several emails sent out to shareholders recently "from the desk of Tim Carter".

A post published on the Forum last week asked Mr Lucas if he'd ever met 'Tim' or the mysterious investors.

Mr Lucas posted the following response at the weekend: "I don’t think you need a degree in Stylometry to note the identical writing styles. I asked for a Teams call with Martin & his alter ego ‘Tim’ but that ‘simply put’, can obviously never take place.

"Asset Match has closed its files on these companies, as they never completed our admission documents. As of 4mths ago I no longer consider I have a financial interest in any Avocet entity, just some share certs. I’ve written everything off in my tax returns, or marked to zero anything not in administration.

"I did not do appropriate levels of due diligence 4+ years ago and have paid a price. It’s been a bad trade but I was never dependent solely on these entities. I generally find it difficult to engage with pseudonyms or even worse a desk of..!"

That was quickly followed by a contribution from Sandy Jeffrey, Avocet's former agricultural operations manager who Mr Frost has frequently accused of possible criminal activity.

Mr Jeffrey wrote: "I made a serious error of judgement six years ago and trusted in Frost believing that Avocet growth and development was a real gamechanger on climate control and a route to renewable or self sustainable agriculture. It took two years of considerable effort and contribution to fully understand that the stated agenda did not exist and never had. There was an ulterior motive.

"Over the past two years my company has written off 61,000 Avocet shares. My family value their 60,000 shares at zero. A further 100,000 shares were illegally removed from the register".

In a swift response, Mr Frost told shareholders in a further 'news letter' : "As a man, I like Stuart Lucas. He has his views. Avocet & Genfro shares have value. During the last month I have sought to sell some 50,000 Asset Match shares which Stuart advises me are worth £6 per share. Surprise, surprise, not even Stuart himself would buy them at £0.50p. It’s a funny old world! 

"Thanks to last Monday’s court determinations, Sandy Jeffrey shall shortly be in receipt of a writ. The directors of Avocet would be failing in their duty not to recover the £500,000+ Sandy has clearly defrauded you, Avocet Shareholders, from. Personally, I do think genfro.com will outperform Asset Match when it comes to share sales."