'£2 million of Avocet additive' has 'negligible value'

by OUR BUSINESS UNIT

A quantity of the 'miracle' fuel additive which has yet to be marketed by the ailing Avocet group of companies is worth £2 million, according to bankrupt businessman Martin Frost even though liquidators have concluded the consignment is of "negligible value".

Mr Frost, who chaired the Avocet firms for five years before flagship company Omega Infinite collapsed into compulsory liquidation in May 2020, included his £2 million valuation for the additive in one of a series of emails to investors while also setting out plans for a United Nations petition currently 'being prepared in Washington.'

The so-called UN dossier, to be lodged at the organisation's headquarters in New York next month, will, says Mr Frost "expose wrongdoing against my family and Avocet and the dossier should ultimately enable many of you to recover damages."

Mr Frost has issued a daily letter to shareholders in which he names members of the Scottish legal hierarchy - among them judges and senior law officers - who he blames for the financial troubles which have engulfed the Avocet group. 

At least three of the businesses are either in liquidation or administration with debts running into many millions of pounds. More than 600 shareholders who ploughed money into the fuel additive concept now stand to lose an even larger combined sum. Mr Frost has repeatedly denied allegations that his was a Ponzi scheme.

The batch of  Avocet cetane product seized by agents working for Omega Infinite's liquidators Begbies Traynor appears to have ended up in a secure unit in Scunthorpe.

In his July 28th email Mr Frost wrote:

"Upon the 2021 inspection of Begbies Scunthorpe storage facilities, Begbies produced in storage some £2 million in value of ‘avocet methanol additive’ provided M. Frost in 2019. Such assets being clearly marked and documented." However, the £2 million figure appears to be at odds with the additive's worth resulting from an assessment by the Omega liquidators themselves. Only last month in a Progress Report In Winding Up Of The Court dated June 28th 2022 it states in a section headed Stock (Avocet Cetane Additive): "The joint liquidators are aware that the company owns a quantity of cetane additive which the director advised has significant value. "A quantity of cetane additive has been recovered by Eddisons (a specialist firm of valuers, associated with insolvency experts Begbies Traynor) and is securely stored however it is estimated that it is of negligible value". Not Just Sheep & Rugby attempted to find out which of the two valuations was 'genuine'. We asked the public relations firm which deals with Begbies Traynor media enquiries: "Is the additive worth £2 million, as claimed by Mr Frost, and if that is incorrect then what figure do the liquidators put on the quantity they have in secure storage?" But a spokesperson replied: "Begbies Traynor have nothing to add beyond their comments in the recent progress report." Meanwhile the scope of the upcoming UN petition seems to have widened. Mr Frost states: "The UN complaint is made against the UK Government who allowed powerful Scottish lawyers to go rogue.". He also refers to a company named AFS Ventures Ltd, the forerunner of the Avocet Group, which is currently in liquidation. Earlier this month insolvency expert Eric Walls, of KSA Group, who was first appointed as AFS Ventures liquidator in February 2015 revealed in a report lodged with Companies House that title to the AFS-owned patent had not passed to Omega Infinite PLC even though a deal had been agreed several years ago. Omega had failed to pay for the intellectual property, he said. But according to Mr Frost: "Due to its subsidiaries' intellectual property, AFS Ventures Plc was valued in 2014 by KPMG as being worth over £50 million."