Opus Finale .... A Warts an' all Exposé of Paintball's Very Own Megalomaniac

[Robbo]

I read the above with a staggering degree of disbelief because even for barnett, his avoidance of the truth is alarmingly psychotic but let's assume there are people out there who might just believe him.
And so I'm gonna tell you guys the way things unfolded yesterday and you can then believe who you wanna ... I was minding my own business on my laptop when I heard a beep and a FB message plopped into my inbox.

It said simply, 'you were right' ....... now, I have had a few of these in the past and in all those cases, it related to what I'd been saying about barnett .... Simon Cole was the first and yesterday it was Gino ....
For those who don't know who Gino is, he's the owner of Valken and someone who doesn't really like being made to look foolish ...Gino wasn't foolish in this sense, he was just too trusting.
I had had a discussion with him some time back and I'd made my feelings on barnett known to him - I then predicted he'd be fuhk'd over by barnett, it wasn't a matter of 'if', it was 'when' ....

Yesterday changed everything, Gino wasn't a happy man, he told me that barnett had done him for approx. 60 grand .... 60 fuhkin grand !!!..... I didn't talk about the amount yesterday on here because I wasn't sure if I was ok to say anything in terms of what Gino was comfortable with.
And so, I messaged him 20 minutes ago and asked if it was ok I mention the amount barnett had screwed him for ... his response is now self-evident ... minus a few expletives !!!
Now, either myself and Gino are lying [and of course a myriad of others] or barnett is lying his ass off [yet again] .... and so, I challenge barnett to call myself and Gino 'liars' .... but before he responds, I will say this much.
If barnett calls me a liar, my response isn't gonna be litigious but if he comes out and calls Gino a liar, then he's treading an extremely dangerous line that could prove expensive in most senses of the word.
What a piece of work this prihk barnett really is ....

 

[onasilverbike]

Pete, that's not pocket change, even for Gino. All I can see here is an attempt at an assurance that his games will go on as planned to appease his followers. I wonder however, who does he expect to supply paint for his events, maybe that is why he seems to be moving to magfed only events, in order that he can operate on a BYO basis without upsetting his customer base.

Also the suggestion that the letter was a photoshop, obviously the addressee details had been removed, but his tone suggests the whole thing was a fabrication.

 

[Robbo]

Pete, I erased Valken's details from that letter, it wasn't created on Photshop at all, barnett sent it to Gino and he sent it to me ..... it's a legitimate letter from barnett and is instrumental in insulating himself from the money he owes his creditors.
It's normal practice for people like barnett to keep creating Phoenix companies every time he ditches other companies to avoid paying people .....

He tries to suggest it's normal for him but bottom line is this, if his business was legit, then why keep ditching companies and creating new ones???
It's NOT normal !!!!

barnett's normal response to outrages like this is now typical - he plays down events and accuses people of picking on him - do people really believe so many of our top industry are conspiring against barnett ... or is it more likely that barnett is the real problem ?

He seems absolutely incapable of telling the truth; in fact, he distorts the truth to his own ends, and if that means he includes his own family, then he has no scruples about using them.
He's worse than a lying, cheating conman, he's a sick phuk who will stoop to any depths to subvert the truth and avoid the consequences of his actions.
He's sick in the head ....

 

[Dusty]

Wow.

Denial. It's not just a river in Africa you know.

I can't beleive he's pulling the photoshop card, and 60 grand? £60,000???? Gino's going to come for it, feckin Nora, £60K??

 

[onasilverbike]

There you go, straight from the horses mouth, as it were. I believe that the letter was also shared on various Facebook groups yesterday but has been largely removed, either by the original posters or the page admins.

The number of companies he has operated and which have ceased trading is less than he may suggest, a quick search of any of the company record sites will reveal, unless, of course, he includes the restaurant business. However, it is unusual that he should operate in such a manner, the reasons given don't really stack up, the only obvious one is to avoid the company's liabilities.

 

[Dusty]

tax evasion? if a company doesn't exist or goes bust does it have to pay taxes?

I'd say it won't be long before HMRC are having a right old root through his affairs.

 

[Robbo]

Oh my, do you guys remember all the way back to the first post I made in this thread?
Well, one of the things I mentioned in that post was the way barnett tried to screw Simon Cole for 20 grand after he'd guaranteed the debt to Manfred of Maxs and Millennium fame.
Simon worked for Maxs and Maxs gave barnett credit to the tune of 20 grand that Simon quaranteed because he trusted barnett ... oops :/

I knew barnett eventually told Maxs / Simon that he would have to pay in instalments but I wasn't sure how much of the debt had been paid off after all this time.
I just found out that barnett has paid off about 2 grand and the rest is still owing ..... that's right, he's paid two miserly grand off his 20 grand bill from Maxs ....
Someone is gonna send me the exact amount left owing but it's approximately 18 grand as I say ...

Do people in our industry who continue to do business with this scum-sack have an 'ignore' button that enables them to set aside all notions of commercial decency or have we really descended this far where someone like barnett can function without consequence?
How many of our industry have to get fuhk'd over by him before he becomes a pariah to all?
FFS, you people out there who still deal with him need to grow a set of bollox, re-engage your principles and avoid all contact with him.
This gets sicker by the hour ... 18 fuhkin grand to Maxs, 60 grand to Valken, and that doesn't even scratch the surface of this as$holes indulgences ....Is Manfred gonna be added to barnett's delusional list of liars???
Really???

 

[onasilverbike]

Erm, probably, I very much suspect that Simon has paid Manfield more!

 

[Robbo]

Pete, no, that's not the case mate; Maxs stood for it and all credit to him for doing so.
He realised that Simon had been conned all along and wasn't going to ask Simon to adhere to his guarantee which I think must have come as some relief for Mr Cole.

 

[Dusty]

Someone, somewhere must be telling porkies....

Just read this on facebook.



Shoreline and Bluewater Paintball
****Rumours, rumours and more rumours - how very exciting smile emoticon ****

Yep, we've heard the latest internet rumours. Yep we've seen the photoshopped lettering being posted around. Yes we know where it came from.

Last week it was all about some guy being denied access to a game which was creating the internet drama for the week. Before that it was a charity fraud, before that a child abuse scandal, before that a conspiracy involving local government officials and the military and Shoreline. Before that a scandal about whether the owners of Shoreline were married or not, before that BBQgate, before that international drug smuggling..............yadda....yadda....yawn.

Shoreline operates lots of different companies. We open and close those companies for all sorts of reasons on a regular basis - its pretty standard business practise to anyone who knows what they are talking about. In the past 2 years 4 or 5 Shoreline companies have mothballed or ceased trading.....nobody noticed, its largely an admin process.

Yesterday we closed another. It had no relevance to the running of any of our events. It was largely an operating company which had fulfilled its usefulness. The company closed yesterday is not bankrupt. It is not liquidated. It has just ceased trading which is an admin status - like the 4 or 5 ones before it.

Today we are all sitting at our same desks, in our same office, writing on this same Facebook page, with our same website, same logos, same people, doing the same thing running the same Shoreline group of businesses.

We've just got back from running Tango Down last weekend, this weekend we'll be running our MSPL and in a couple of weeks we'll be running Stargate and UWL. The week after that we'll be in Toronto running our Canadian Big Game then back to run the Prison game and our Afghan game before we launch the Super6 series for next year along with the venues for UWL UK 2016.

Sorry to disappoint those who love the drama. Sorry to disappoint those businesses calling around teams and customers spreading nonsense. Remember the same people calling around when they thought Dye was closing? Same thing (but smaller scale). Sorry to be boring but.........nothing has changed.

Any customers who have bought tickets are unaffected. Just drop us a line on Facebook, email or give us a call on 01974 261 465 if you want a chat.

But this is yet another internet drama where people with their own agenda behave like hysterical teenage girls to try and whip up a drama that doesn't exist. Seen it many times. Will see it many times again. Standard. Yawn.

We'll see you on the field this weekend at MSPL or at Stargate in a couple of weeks.

Shoreline.

Good to know, at least people will know where to find him