Hoaxer escapes prison sentence

A gazumped homeowner who ran a smear campaign to try and ruin a firm of estate agents escaped jail yesterday.

Martin Frostick, of Newbarn, Delph, was convicted of fraud by false representation following a trial. He was sentenced to nine months in jail, suspended for two years, ordered to complete 250 hours unpaid work with £500 costs

The 53-year-old was so aggrieved at losing out on buying a farmhouse during the the 1990s he brooded upon it for 11 years, and then decided to get his own back on the agents who had been selling it.

He faxed bogus bankruptcy petitions to 765 companies falsely claiming Ryder and Dutton was going bust, leading to the estate agent based in Oldham, being deluged with inquiries about its financial state.

The firm also got a letter from a commercial leasing company saying an agreement it had with them had now been terminated.

The estate agent had to call in police and issue urgent public statements dismissing the notices as “malicious rumour”.

Frostick admitted sending the bogus faxes but claimed he had done nothing wrong. Outside court, Det Con Mark Tiffany, of Oldham CID, said: “This was a blatant attempt to ruin the reputation of a company that he felt had let him down.

“Managers and staff were left deeply distressed by his lies and were put in the awful position of having to defend themselves against complete falsehoods.

“I hope this sentence warns people they cannot behave like this.”