Angry hoaxer tried to ruin estate agents

A disgruntled homeowner tried to ruin the reputation of an estate agents after they failed to answer an e-mail from him, a court heard.

Martin Frostick (53) had tried to contact Ryder and Dutton regarding the sale of his former home in 1997.

The jury was read Frostick’s police interviews from July, 2008, in which he claimed he owned a property on Haworth Street, Oldham, in the early 1990s.

Frostick (pictured) told officers he had owned the property for four of five years, but after being threatened, decided to rent it out around 1995. When his tenants stopped paying their rent, Frostick told police he had returned the key to the Bradford and Bingley building society and told them to repossess the house.

During the same period, Frostick told officers he was in the process of purchasing a farmhouse in Saddleworth. However, he was gazumped at the last minute and lost out on the farmhouse.

Meanwhile, his former home on Haworth Street had been sold for £27,000 — despite being valued by Ryder and Dutton in 1993 at £45,000.

Frostick told officers he believed he had lost out on the farmhouse due to his own “stupidity” but nine years later, decided to find out why his own home on Haworth Street had been under-valued.

Frostick contacted Ryder and Dutton about the sale of his property.

When he was told they had no records dating back 11 years, Frostick became “angry” and decided to launch a smear campaign against the firm hoping to bankrupt them.

He added, “I gave them the opportunity to answer some questions that were brought to my attention by Bradford and Bingley. These questions related to a sneak theft by Ryder and Dutton. Because they didn’t answer, I explained what I was going to do. That’s communication.”

He admitted sending out a false winding up notice to 765 companies associated with Ryder and Dutton, that he had based on a real winding up notice he had found on the internet.

Frostick denies fraud. The trial continues.