Globetrotting company failed to pay its auditors

by EWAN LAMB

The 'new' member of the Avocet Group of companies which promoted itself at several high profile events last year, including visits to Abu Dhabi and Switzerland, has failed to pay the professional fees of its auditors who have resigned.

As we reported recently, Borders-based Avocet Natural Capital, some of whose stable mates have become insolvent in recent weeks, was formed to 'protect' intellectual property, including patents for a 'revolutionary' fuel additive and game changing new methods of agricultural production.

The assets along with the interests of 650 shareholders and investors were previously vested in Avocet Infinite plc. But that company, now called Omega Infinite, is in the process of being liquidated.

Although those with a stake in the much vaunted processes have been led to believe their shares have jumped in value by 50% following the switch to Avocet Natural Capital (ANC), at least some are becoming increasingly concerned as to the whereabouts of their cash.

However, a legal expert who read our previous story about ANC commented: "With regard to the suggestion from those quoted in the article that minority shareholders do not have a remedy, I am not so sure that is the case. They should definitely seek legal advice and, if so advised, get this before the courts as soon as possible. The courts can order various things to be done which may protect the minority interests".

Now comes news that ANC's auditors have quit after the firm failed to pay "long overdue professional fees"

In a letter to ANC's directors dated May 13th, a copy of which has been published on the Companies House website, Newcastle-based chartered accountants Ryecroft Glenton confirm their resignation.

Ryecroft Glenton write: "In accordance with the requirements of Section 516 of the Companies Act 2006 we formally resign as auditors with effect from 12th May, 2020.

"We consider the following reasons and matters connected with our ceasing to hold office should be brought to the attention of the shareholders and creditors: Having considered the FRC Revised Ethical Standard 2019, long overdue fees for professional services threaten the objectivity of the firm to such an extent that the firm's independence is compromised".

As we have also reported, Ryecroft Glenton previously acted as auditors to Orrdone Farms Ltd., a subsidiary of Avocet Infinite which is now in administration. A report by Orrdone Farms' joint administrators lists Ryecroft Glenton as a creditor.

Only last June ANC sent a three-man team to a United Nations conference on Trade & Development in Geneva. The company participated in a panel debate during session five at the conference which bore the title "Growing inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystems in the digital world."

Post conference papers on session five report: "The panel was composed of representatives of the following entities: Avocet Natural Capital, United Kingdom; Council of Ethnic Minority Voluntary Sector Organizations Scotland, United Kingdom; European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Switzerland; Foundation for Armenian Science and Technology, Armenia; Fondetec, Switzerland; Kubinga, Angola; The Great Village, France; and University of Hertfordshire, United Kingdom.

The ANC delegation spokesman claimed that an inclusive and sustainable business model could address the major sustainability issues facing the world by introducing a circular agricultural economy.

"The organization he represented advocated sustainable agriculture, renewable energy and green fuel. By developing a more circular approach to agriculture and energy, the organization helped enable farmers to generate a profit sustainably", adds the report.

Prior to the Geneva event the company was represented at the World Biogas EXPO 2018 at the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham.

And in January 2019 ANC shared a stand with two alternative energy firms at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi. The summit attracted 33,500 attendees from 170 countries and featured 800 companies and brands from 40 nations. Some 13 billion dollars worth of projects were announced on site.

Avocet shareholders ask "where is our cash?"

by DOUG COLLIE

A number of shareholders with stakes in the insolvent Avocet Infinite business claim they have not been able to access company accounts and other corporate information, and are demanding to know the whereabouts of the Group's "missing millions".

Although the 'ground breaking' high profile concern now known as Omega Infinite is in the hands of liquidators and the Official Receiver, investors have been told by the company's leading director Martin Frost via an interview with The Sunday Times that their shares are now worth 50% more than before.

That is apparently because the Avocet Infinite 'assets' including intellectual property have been protected by being switched to a different firm called Avocet Natural Capital. Mr Frost and his fellow directors own the patents for Avocet, an additive which he has asserted would revolutionise fuel production.

The Borders-based group also promised to change the face of agricultural systems by using 'disruptive technology' on three Berwickshire farms. However, Avocet subsidiary Orrdone Farms is currently being investigated by joint administrators appointed by a financial business said to be owed more than £3 million. Other creditors have so far filed claims totalling in excess of £650,000.

As the affairs of Avocet Infinite concentrate the minds of liquidators Begbies Traynor,  many of the 650 shareholders - between them believed to have paid £14 million into the business - who thought the 'green' fuel additive was likely to be a winner are becoming increasingly angry and frustrated by what has taken place over recent months.

Under the Avocet Infinite set-up no single shareholder was allowed to own more than 10% of the business. But there are no such limits in the case of Avocet Natural Capital (ANC).

Mr Frost holds a massive 13,960,765 shares in ANC giving him outright control. In addition one of his other businesses, Loch Lomond Heritage has 1,455,000 shares and an organisation called Avocet Natural Foundation Holdings 3,458,198.

All of that means individual shareholders, some of whom invested sums of up to £1 million and more when Avocet Infinite was in its infancy, say they are powerless to take action against the 'new' company.

To compound matters, the 2018 annual accounts for Avocet Natural Capital are long overdue. They should have been lodged with Companies House in December last year. The failure to meet that deadline constitutes a contravention of business rules. According to the last available set of accounts the controlling party of Avocet Natural Capital was Avocet Infinite.

On 3rd March this year the Registrar of Companies gave notice that "unless cause is shown to the contrary" Avocet Natural Capital would be struck off the register and dissolved. However, on 18th March the Registrar intimated that the striking off action had been discontinued.

One investor told Not Just Sheep & Rugby: "I liked the story behind the fuel additive and put my money in, perhaps foolishly and without due diligence. The people I know who became shareholders are a very respectable group. But they have been treated very badly. It is Mr Frost who takes all the decisions".

The shareholder who spoke to us claimed there were no up-to-date company accounts and no access to corporate records, adding: "Avocet Natural Capital is just part of a veritable web of companies set up by Mr Frost, and no-one can get to the bottom of it all".

We were also told: "No-one can sell their shares for this is a private company. So where has the money gone? The directors of Avocet Infinite has never given shareholders an explanation. When are the shares going to be traded? That’s what shareholders want to know." 

Sources are asking whether company law has been breached, but given the total lack of available paperwork that question remains unanswered for now. There are also tales of employees not being paid and of suppliers being left out of pocket.

"The bottom line is we are powerless to act", said the investor. "As far as I'm aware Avocet Infinite or Omega Infinite as it's now called did not produce any of the well publicised fuel additive. It is believed some kind of manufacturing contract was being arranged with a major player but nothing seems to have come of that".

Asked whether they had seen the series of extremely up-beat articles about Avocet Infinite in The Parliamentary Review - a publication chaired by former UK Government ministers Lord David Blunkett and Lord Eric Pickles but apparently not linked to Parliament - the investor replied "Yes and I certainly believed Parliamentary Review had a direct connection with Westminster. That impression was certainly given".

Another shareholder who contacted Not Just Sheep & Rugby was equally scathing in his angry condemnation of the Avocet Infinite operation.

This time we were told: "There has been a continual blame game – problems are always the fault of everyone else. There has even been excuses based around Covid-19. 

"The reason so many people have put money into Avocet is because the concept is actually right. Many bright people have invested  because they believed the fuel additive has been both proven and patented. It is a travesty that the directors of Avocet Infinite have got their hands on it. I am furious.

"So the shares in Avocet Infinite have been transferred to Avocet Natural Capital and each shareholder now has 50% more shares. But what is 50% of nothing? More shares simply means more paper. It's meaningless. There are no accounts and no corporate information for these Avocet companies after 2017, and even that was questionable.

"And without corporate information it is difficult to take action to try to find out what might have happened. Ironically the fuel additive product would still work, it is a proven concept.

"The transfer of the shares from Avocet Infinite to Avocet Natural Capital may have been quite legal and above board, but as I say no-one has seen the paperwork. It is a sorry, sorry mess. Shareholders have had no information about developments which resulted in Avocet Infinite’s insolvency. Those who attended a so-called annual general meeting last November were told the business was going to pay off all creditors. But that statement was patently false."

All part of life's rich tapestry....

by EWAN LAMB

The various stakeholders in the £6.8 million Great Tapestry of Scotland gallery in Galashiels - it is due to open next spring a year behind schedule - will be hoping more than most that Covid-19 beats a hasty retreat from the Scottish Borders.

Critics have already expressed doubts that the costly project can attract sufficient numbers of 'customers' to make the visitor centre, housed partly in the town's old post office building, financially viable. The centre will play host to 160 panels depicting Scotland's history. They were produced by a thousand volunteer stitchers.

Indeed two separate financial assessments - one by a firm of consultants commissioned by Scottish Borders Council, the other carried out by the museum's managers-to-be the Live Borders Trust - came to vastly different conclusions as to the profit or loss likely to be recorded in the first five years.

Jura Consultants told the local authority, which has agreed to under-write any shortfalls in revenue as well as taking on annual loan charges of £208,000 to pay off their capital contribution of £3.5 million, that the tapestry facility would lose money from year one onward with a deficit of £185,000 accruing after five years.

But when the calculator was handed over to Live Borders they assured the council and others they could shave an impressive £77,600 a year from the Jura Consultants business plan running costs. That would result in a £202,500 surplus after five years predicated on 51,000 paying customers each year.

So clearly any reduction in attendances caused by Covid travel restrictions or an absence of overseas visitors to the Borders could have a potentially devastating impact on the new centre just as it is getting off the ground.

The hope is the tapestry will generate an additional £892,000 for the struggling local economy as well as providing 17 jobs,

Meanwhile, in the lead up to the opening, Live Borders itself has had a rough time financially. The Trust, formerly known as Borders Sport & Leisure, posted a £723,000 deficit in 2018/19 due largely to a £970,000 pension adjustment.

And to make matters worse the annual management fee the Trust receives from the council to run leisure facilities, museums and libraries is being cut by 3% year on year. SBC handed the Trust £5.475 million last year, £5.315 million this year with a further drop to £5.189 million in 2021/22.

The Coronavirus crisis appears to be having a detrimental effect on tapestry galleries throughout the country.

In their annual report just published the trustees of The Quaker Tapestry, housed in a listed building in Kendal, Cumbria, have this to say: "As this report is being compiled in early April 2020 we are in the midst of a coronavirus crisis which is affecting the whole nation.

"The museum and buildings have been closed since mid-March. While the present situation lasts absolutely no income will be earned from admissions and associated Gift Aid, shop sales, workshops, room letting or flat hire.

"This is the most serious risk to core income that Quaker Tapestry has faced in its 25 years operating in Kendal. Quaker Tapestry is in a very difficult situation as 60-65% of income is earned from activities. Quaker Tapestry has no major on-going grant funding. All staff except the General Manager have been furloughed".

However, in 2019, when the Kendal visitor attraction was functioning normally it still recorded a financial loss.

The tapestry began life in Somerset in 1981 with over 4,000 people in 15 countries producing 77 wool embroidered panels depicting the experiences of Quakers since the formation of the movement in 1652.

"We have a dedicated group of volunteers without whom we should find it difficult to continue our present operations", writes trust chair Susan Tyldesley in the annual report.

Quaker Tapestry ended last year with an overall loss of £13,807. The number of visitors is not specified in the report but admission money brought in only £12,781.

The report adds: "Given the 2020 situation (Covid) it will be vital that replacement income is found to allow Quaker Tapestry to continue operating".

It has been suggested a charge of £7.50 could be levied at the Great Tapestry of Scotland museum.although according to the Live Borders website a leaflet aimed at the travel trade indicates the entry fee has yet to be confirmed.

The leaflet does contain one slight mathematical error. It claims the tapestry:"tells the inspirational true story of the country’s history, heritage and culture (from 8500 BC to present day, a period of 420 million years).

Avocet firm's 'thoroughly contradictory' £240,000 tax appeal

EXCLUSIVE by DOUGLAS SHEPHERD

A subsidiary of the insolvent Avocet Infinite group failed to settle a £187,000 tax bill levied on a property transaction, then attempted to challenge Revenue Scotland's imposition of a £58,000 penalty for non-payment.

The appeal to the Tax Chamber First Tier Tribunal for Scotland was lodged by Martin Frost, the group's principal director on behalf of Avocet Farms Ltd., a business which traded under three different names in the space of four years.

Revenue Scotland had originally served the notice seeking Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) on Avocet Agriculture Ltd. relating to the multi-million pound purchase of Harcarse Hill farm, Berwickshire, in 2016.

The firm became known as Avocet Farms in 2017 before a further name change to Orrdone Farms in 2019. The business is now in the hands of joint receivers with debts estimated to total at least £3.5 million. HMRC is listed as one of the creditors.

The complicated tale of Mr Frost's attempt to have the tax assessment re-calculated is set out in a  decision notice by tribunal president Anne Scott which followed a public hearing - demanded by Mr Frost - last August. He claimed Revenue Scotland had "sued the wrong party".

But Ms Scott explains the revenue had not sued anyone: they had simply responded to Mr Frost's notice of appeal. He had argued that the tribunal “… is bias (sic) in not ordering Revenue Scotland to commence again against Avocet Farms Limited”. This tribunal has no such power, Ms Scott said.

The history of the case showed that on 5 October 2018, Revenue Scotland had issued a Penalty Assessment Notice to Avocet Farms Limited. That Notice was issued following the lodgement on 30 August 2018 of a Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (“LBTT”) return which had had an effective date of 16 October 2016 so the return was very late as it should have been filed within 30 days of the effective date and the tax paid then.

"The name of the buyer was stated to be Avocet Agriculture Limited. The return was lodged by the appellant’s solicitor (“the agent”). The transaction related to the purchase of Harcase Hill Farmhouse for a total consideration which was stated at £5 million. The LBTT amounted to £187,000.15. The tax, which was due for payment by 15 November 2016, has not been paid."

Avocet Agriculture Limited had changed its name to Avocet Farms Limited on 23 June 2017; so the penalties were assessed on Avocet Farms Limited. The Penalty Assessment Notice was in the sum of £57,958 being penalties for late filing of the return, late payment of the tax and interest.

The agent for the company wrote to Revenue Scotland on 5 November 2018  and requested a review of the Penalty Assessment Notice. Revenue Scotland issued a review decision upholding the penalties but that letter was incorrectly addressed to Avocet Agriculture Limited.

Mr Frost lodged an appeal with the Tribunal in the name of Avocet Agriculture Limited referring to the penalties and the £5 million transaction.

"He makes it clear that the decision that he appeals is the review decision issued by Revenue Scotland on 20 December 2018. He enclosed a copy. The stated Ground of Appeal was that in 2018 the price had been reduced to £4 million and there should therefore be no penalties", according to the tribunal decision notice.

In April 2019 Mr Frost responded stating that the appellant in the appeal should be Avocet Farms Limited which had previously been known as Avocet Agriculture Limited. 

The company currently known as Avocet Agriculture Limited had no connection with the transaction. The consideration had been reduced by £1 million, the LBTT should be sought from Avocet Farms Limited and recalculated. But Revenue Scotland sought an Order dismissing the appeal on the basis that there had not been compliance with the Directions.

Mr Frost was directed to intimate in writing to the Tribunal whether or not he wished to continue with an appeal by Avocet Farms Limited and, if so, that would be treated as an application to substitute Avocet Farms Limited as the appellant. . In the event that that course of action was adopted then the appellant was directed to lodge with the Tribunal details of the reasons why the return was late and the tax not paid. The appellant was put on notice that if there was no compliance then the appeal would be dismissed.

The decision notice continues: "The appellant responded in a thoroughly contradictory fashion and stated: 'I formally intimate that Avocet Agriculture Limited wishes to appeal this Order for after discussing such with a retired judge and Senior Scottish counsel it is their opinion that under Scots law it is not possible to transcribe one limited company to another. … Separately, I have forwarded extended grounds for an Appeal by Avocet Farms Limited.'”

Mr Frost argued that although the transaction was in 2016, the purchase price was altered in 2018 from £5 million, the figure in the LBTT return, to £3.7 million and therefore Revenue Scotland has overstated the tax, interest and penalties.

Ms Scott states: "The first and most obvious point to make is that most recently lodged Grounds of Appeal state that the purchase price had been altered to £3.7 million. He had previously stated £4 million. In his oral submission he argued that the purchase price had initially been reduced to £4.2 million and then to £3.2 million.

"However, it also transpired that the buyer and seller were connected parties so the transaction had not been at arm’s length.  Secondly, and far more importantly, Mr Frost should be well aware that those are not adequate Grounds of Appeal. 

"He has never explained why no tax has been paid. It was only at the hearing that he offered any explanation as to the reason for the late return and that was little and too late. He is therefore in breach of the Rules.

"Even at this hearing Mr Frost has not offered any explanation for the failure to pay any tax at all.  At the hearing he made a bland and unsupported assertion that the agent had been at fault for lodging the return late. 

"However, when he was asked why the appeal had been lodged in the wrong name he also blamed the agent until it was pointed out to him that he had hand written the appeal and not only had he put the wrong name in the box for “appellant” he had also stated  that he was signing the appeal for Avocet Agriculture Ltd."

And Ms Scott concluded: "Since there is no valid Notice of Appeal the appeal, such as it is, is dismissed."

The widow who blocked an aristocrat's bid to annexe two lochs

by DOUG COLLIE

It was a high profile court case with intriguing adversaries - on one side a powerful lord attempting to ban his neighbours from two Borders lochs to secure him exclusive use, and on the other a landowner's widow determined to frustrate him by taking the three-year-long dispute all the way to the House of Lords.

The drama was unfolding just over 150 years ago after the 10th Lord Napier laid claim to ownership of St. Mary's Loch and the neighbouring Loch of the Lowes in rural Selkirkshire. He cited a Royal charter of 1607 which had, he said, granted his ancestors the lands beneath the lakes in perpetuity.

But he reckoned without the spirited Anne Scott, of Rodono, who took up the legal cudgels after her husband John died while the case was proceeding.

Judges in two divisions of Scotland's Court of Session found in favour of Lord Napier. Mrs Scott and her husband before her claimed a joint-right of property with the lochs' other riparian proprietor, but their arguments were dismissed. 

One of the witnesses called to give evidence at the original 1866 hearing was 83-year-old Tibbie Shiel, whose inn which bears her name still stands by the shore of the two lochs. Her hostelry was visited by the likes of Sir Walter Scott and William Wordsworth while James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, lived close by.

The elderly Tibbie Shiel - she died in 1878, aged 95 - told the court she had been employed to watch over the defender's [Lord Napier] boat, and otherwise to look after his interests in a cottage on the loch,

However, as the Lord Chancellor observed in the House of Lords judgement which overturned the two previous rulings she did not speak of any instructions given to her to interfere with the uses of the lake by the boats of other persons.

"She produces a written order given to her by the late Lord Napier (the 10th Lord's father), not to allow any one to take his boat without a written order from him", added the judge. But that was all.

The late Mr Scott, in his original submission to the Court of Session asked for a declaration that he "has, together with the other proprietors whose lands lie around and border on the same, a joint right or common property in the loch called St Mary's Loch, and the loch called the Loch of the Lowes, and a joint right of using boats, fowling, fishing, floating timber, and exercising all other rights in or over the said lochs, or either of them, and that he [Lord Napier] be ordained to desist from molesting and interrupting the pursuer in the exercise of his right."

The other riparian owners at the time included the Earl of Wemyss and the Duke of Buccleuch.

In delivering his Opinion the Lord Chancellor stated: "He does not claim simply equal rights with the pursuers, as a riparian proprietor, but claims to be owner by distinct original grant of the lakes themselves.

"Now, certainly, as to exclusive possession, it appears to me that no evidence whatever has been produced by Lord Napier sufficient to establish that right as against the prima facie right of the pursuer and of the other riparian proprietors.

"On the whole, therefore without entering into all the details of the evidence, I do not think that Lord Napier has proved (that which for reasons I have alleged I think him bound to prove) any right to exclude the pursuer." 

Lord Chelmsford, another of the law lords who considered the appeal by Mrs Scott was equally dismissive of Lord Napier's sweeping claims.

He said: "I do not find in the evidence for the respondent [Lord Napier] proof of the exercise of rights over the lochs by him and his predecessors, or his interference with other riparian proprietors or their tenants which unequivocally establish his title to the sole and separate use and possession of the lochs, or which are not consistent with his having merely a common property in them with the other proprietors. as there is not a single act proved which is not consistent with the respondent being entitled merely in common with other proprietors, his answer to the appellant's case entirely failed; and therefore differing, as I am compelled to do, with the majority of the Judges of the First Division, I think the interlocutors (decisions) appealed from ought to be reversed."

The 10th Lord Napier who was also to become the 1st Baron Ettrick had a distinguished career as a diplomat, serving as British Minister to the United States of America (1857-1859) and Governor of Madras (1866-1872). He died in Florence, Italy in 1898, aged 79.

John Scott had Rodono House built as a shooting lodge in 1866 having acquired the estate in 1860. He donated the ground on which James Hogg's statue was erected on a site overlooking the loch.

Anne Scott sold Rodono in 1873. Four years later she donated £1,200 - equivalent to £160,000 in today's values - for the construction of an Anglican church to honour the memory of her husband in the spa town of Marienbad, Bohemia (now Czech Republic).

Wind up petition adds to Avocet investors' woes

EXCLUSIVE by EWAN LAMB

A creditor of the troubled Omega Infinite venture capital company has successfully petitioned the High Court to have the business wound up, ending any hopes that the 'ground breaking' firm might come back from its financial collapse.

One of the official receivers attached to the court is, by virtue of the winding up order, liquidator of the company once known as Avocet Infinite whose management promised to revolutionise agricultural and fuel production from their base on farms in Berwickshire.

The move to wind up the Avocet operation is in addition to the appointment of joint liquidators by UK Business Secretary Alok Sharma. The two insolvency experts from accountancy firm Begbies Traynor moved in at the end of April after a separate petition to the court.

A post on the Companies House website yesterday confirmed the wind up petition had been granted in the Business and Property Courts in Leeds by His Honour Judge Klein.

The petitioner is named as London law firm Fieldfisher LLP, described as a creditor of Omega Infinite. The submission seeking to wind up the Berwick-on-Tweed-based business was originally made in November 2019 before being transferred to the Leeds division by Insolvency & Companies Court Judge Mullen on March 5th this year.

Perhaps ironically, the petition was supported by Orrdone Farms PLC (in administration), a subsidiary of the Avocet 'Group' which was rendered insolvent in January with debts of more than £3.5 million.

According to the new notice: "The court, having read the documents on the court file, it is ordered that [1] Omega Infinite PLC be wound up by the court under the Insolvency Act 1986; [2] the costs of the petitioner and of Orrdone Farms Ltd of the petition and the petitioner's costs of the administration application be paid out of the assets of the company as an expense of the liquidation".

Winding up and liquidation are separate steps in the process of shutting down and dissolving a company.

An official description of the difference between the two states: "Winding Up involves ending all business affairs and includes the closure of the company (including liquidation or dissolution), whilst Liquidation is specifically about selling off company assets in order to pay creditors and then closing the company.

A winding up petition is different to a voluntary winding up.This is a forced procedure when someone is owed money. A Winding Up Petition is submitted to the court by a creditor of a company who has failed to collect the debts that they are owed.

"If this petition is granted by the court, the company will then be investigated and liquidated by the Official Receiver. The Official Receiver will make it their business to conduct a very intrusive investigation into whether any misfeasance or wrongful trading has been conducted."

As already reported here Martin Frost, a director of both Omega Infinite and Orrdone Farms, told the farming company's joint administrators that all of the assets held by Orrdone had been sold to Avocet Infinite (as it then was) in May 2019. As a result Orrdone Farms had ceased trading.

More recently Mr Frost told The Sunday Times that 'the real worth' of Omega Infinite - intellectual property alleged to be worth £60 million - was preserved and intact after being vested in a new 'relatively debt free' company called Avocet Natural Capital plc.

Business Secretary sent in the 'Avocet' liquidators

EXCLUSIVE by DOUG COLLIE

The UK Business Secretary Alok Sharma appointed the insolvency team which is now investigating the affairs of  Borders-based 'green innovators' Avocet Infinite as shareholders wait to see whether they may have lost an estimated £14 million in investments.

A statement issued on behalf of the joint liquidators revealed which UK Secretary of State had applied to the courts to have liquidators assigned to the company which changed its name to Omega Infinite last year.

Meanwhile two other Government agencies are listed as creditors of Orrdone Farms Ltd., a subsidiary of the Avocet 'Group' fronted by principal director Martin Frost.

The joint administrators who took over that business in January have reported a deficit for Ordonne Farms of £3.8 million although they say it has proved difficult to get the information they need as book-keeping had not been kept up to date. The last published accounts for both firms were for 2017.

The list of creditors for the farming company include HM Revenue & Customs Debt Management Enforcement section with a claim for £165,662.

And Forestry & Land Scotland, an arm of the Scottish Government, has submitted a creditor's claim for £201,050.

Other creditors of Orrdone Farms include Peony Farms, of Lacombe, Canada, a leading producer of Piemontese cattle, said to be owed £44,477, and ABGI-UK Ltd., formerly known as Jumpstart, a specialist firm in the field of research and development tax credit claims (£10,763)

The Newcastle accountancy firm of Ryecroft Glenton, which audited the books of Orrdone Farms, Avocet Infinite and of Avocet Faculties Ltd are due £25,218. And Berwick-based surveyors Edwin Thompson are listed as creditors owed £24,079.

In the case of the Orrdone Farms parent, Sheffield insolvency practice Begbies Traynor said in a statement: "Ashleigh Fletcher and Joanne Hammond of Begbies Traynor were appointed as joint liquidators of Omega Infinite plc on 28 April 2020.

"This is a complex matter and the joint liquidators’ investigations are at an early stage. If you or any creditors are able provide further information in relation to this matter, please contact Begbies Traynor on (0114) 275 5033."

The statement added: "We can confirm that the joint liquidators were appointed by the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Alok Sharma)".

The liquidation and administration processes are likely to be additionally complex as a result of inter-company transactions involving Orrdone Farms and Avocet Infinite in the months prior to their financial collapse.

Orrdone's insolvency team, in a report published on the Companies House website described the apparently tangled set-up.

They wrote: "In our discussions both with Mr Frost and the company secretary, we were informed that Orrdone Farms Limited had ceased to trade at the end of May 2019 and that it no longer owned any trading assets (including livestock), or had any employees. 

"Invoices later provided to us showed that all of the Company's trading assets and livestock were sold to Avocet Infinite plc (now Omega Infinite plc) on 1 June 2019. We were informed that at the time of the cessation of trade, three of the Company's former employees were dismissed with the remainder being moved to other "Avocet" companies under "TUPE" rules. We have not been granted full access to the Company's detailed payroll records."

Administrators have been provided with two invoices dated 1 June 2019 in the name of Avocet Agriculture Limited (now Orrdone Farms Limited) relating to the sale of all trading assets including farm equipment and livestock to connected company, Avocet (now Omega) Infinite plc. The total sums due to the Company as a result of these two invoices is £1,900,605 plus VAT.

However, Orrdone joint administrators Jeanette Brown and Emma Porter add: "We have not been provided with any evidence that these invoices have been paid, nor has the Company accounted to HM Revenue Customs for the output tax due"..