Frosts to appeal 'eviction' as life president Jennings intervenes

by OUR BUSINESS STAFF

A conference call during 2021 in which copious notes were taken by liquidators investigating the financial affairs of the insolvent Avocet parent company Omega Infinite PLC in fact never took place, according to the company's bankrupt chairman Martin Frost and fellow director Dr 'Bob' Jennings.

The latest development in the 'disruptive technology' Avocet wonder fuel saga will involve an appeal by Mr Frost and his wife Janet against their 'eviction' from their home in Scarborough, shareholders were told in lengthy correspondence circulated by Mr Frost today in his role as joint life president of Genfro Ltd. He shares that post with Dr Jennings.

Insolvency practitioners Ashleigh Fletcher and Joanne Hammond petitioned the courts in Leeds for the repossession of two upmarket apartments in Scarborough, said to have been paid for by Mr Frost using more than £400,000 of investors' cash. A judgment handed down at the beginning of July will now be challenged at appeal by the Frosts.

A bundle of court papers supporting the repossession action includes a sworn statement from Ms Hammond and a file note of the conference call which was held on January 18th 2021.

Ms Hammond's evidence is: "In a conference call with Mr Frost, my joint liquidator Mr Fletcher, Oliver Adams of my office and Bob Jennings (another director of the Company) on 18/01/2021, Mr Frost was asked to explain the payments (referenced). At first he said they were book entries and then when he was told they were not and that they were cash payments, he said they were for book stock which was then sold back to Loch Lomond Heritage Limited. I have seen no evidence whatsoever to support that explanation and I do not believe it was true."

 The conference call file note shows the four attendees were Mr Fletcher (AF) and Oliver Adams (OA) from the liquidators' office, Mr Frost (MF) and Dr Jennings.

A long list of 'main points' from the discussion includes this entry: "Martin agreed to give the joint liquidators a debenture over Avocet Agritech Limited [a subsidiary of Omega], Grenfos Limited would then look at buying the debentures that Omega has over Faculties and Agritech".

There is also a detailed account of a discussion during the conference call concerning transactions between Scottish Academic Press [SAP] Ltd and Loch Lomond Heritage Ltd, companies both controlled by Mr Frost at the time.

An extract from the file note records this conversation between those present:

"AF – From Omegas point of view, two large payments made to SAP.

MF - I don’t think there are any payments, book entries rather than payments.

OA clarified .. in 27 September 2017 there was a payment to SAP of £150k followed on 28 September 2017 with another payment of £145k.

MF I think that's book stock rather than the brand, fairly convinced that stock was sold back to Loch Lomond Heritage.

AF How many books are we talking?

MF At least 12k maybe as many as 20k books

AF why did Omega Acquire those?

MF - The idea was that Faculties was to be run as a separate development business just looking after property & other aspects and also gaining a degree of income from sale of books. Faculties also had own set of board members control of cheque books etc. Faculties didn’t have the money so Omega bought the stock, part of the intercompany debt between Omega and Faculties is down to that, Loch Lomond picked up the brand.

OA - Just to be clear Funds transferred from Omega to purchase stock from SAP which was your sole trader business.

MF – Yes, ------- wrote to royal bank then had separate accounts done."

But now, Mr Frost claims that meeting never happened at all.

And today's 'update' to Genfro shareholders also includes a copy of a witness statement submitted to the court by Dr Jennings backing that assertion. It will form part of the Frosts' appeal.

In it the witness writes: "I, Dr 'Bob' Jennings, state on July 23rd 2023 that I have no recollection nor does my diary nor my phone records indicate that I on 18th January, 2021 or at some other date, joined Martin Frost in a conference call with Ashleigh Fletcher and Oliver Adams of Begbies (Begbies Traynor, insolvency practitioners) in which Martin Frost admitted that he in the guise of SAP he feloniously took money in late 2017 and in 2018 from Omega to wrongly pay for flat 2 Belvedere and Flat 4 Belvedere, Scarborough.

"In my opinion the statement uttered by Ms J Hammond (and transcribed as fact for 18th January 2021 as being true) is false and malicious".

Meanwhile, Mr Frost has also explained the circumstances surrounding his "threatened arrest" after a warrant was issued following his failure to appear at Jedburgh Sheriff Court last week.

In his shareholders' missive, he quotes from recent correspondence with the authorities in Scotland,: "In May 2023 North Yorkshire Police, upon the allegations received (alleged malicious emails) closed down all my phone numbers and email addresses".

Therefore, the only way the Jedburgh court could contact him would be via a Pennsylvania email address. He added: "I do not have any details of my case before the Jedburgh Court".