Hoax smear campaign over 11-year grievance

MARTIN FROSTICK

AN angry Delph homeowner tried to ruin a firm of estate agents in a hoax letter campaign after he blamed them for being gazumped in a house sale 11 years earlier, a court heard yesterday.

Martin Frostick (53), was so annoyed at losing his home he faxed bogus bankruptcy petitions to companies falsely claiming Ryder and Dutton was going bust, it was alleged.

The hoax notices led to the estate agents, based in Oldham, being “deluged” with inquires from worried clients.

A commercial leasing company terminated an agreement with the firm and the estate agents were forced to call in police and issue public statements dismissing the notices as “malicious rumour’’,

When officers interviewed Frostick he allegedly claimed he had done nothing wrong and when told about the cancelling of the lease agreement he retorted: “Good, I’m delighted”.

“What this man did caused significant inconvenience, stress and time,” said Roderick Priestley, prosecuting at Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester.

“This man had a deliberate, dishonest campaign against Ryder and Dutton and his dishonest intention was to cause loss to that firm, or at least expose it to the risk of loss. His intention was to damage them.’’

The court heard Frostick’s grievance against Ryder and Dutton dated back to 1997. The jury was told he owned a house in Oldham, but it had been repossessed and he had been gazumped in a sale.

In June last year, Frostick of Newbarn, Delph, went to Ryder and Dutton’s offices in Uppermill demanding information about the sale 11 years previously.

After Frostick was told that records of the house sale would have been destroyed after six years Ryder and Dutton director Richard Powell received “abusive and threatening” faxes from the accused.

Another fax arrived purporting to be a petition regarding the false winding up of Ryder and Dutton.

Mr Priestley said: “He (Frostick) was aware that this was a dishonest document and that it was completely fictitious.

“The following day there was an email with 31 pages of names and numbers.

“Mr Powell was concerned that this was a list of people to whom the defendant had decided to fax the false information, and called in the police.”

The email was sent to the companies listed and, as a result, Ryder and Dutton was deluged with inquiries about its finances, said Mr Priestly.

The jury was told the firm then received a letter from Universal Leasing, terminating its lease with Ryder and Dutton as a result of the rumours regarding their financial situation.

Frostick was arrested two weeks later. He told police he couldn’t accept that the firm would not have kept records going back 11 years.

He admitted coming up with the idea but denies fraud by making false representations.

The trial continues.