If you feel this might offend any of your sensibilities in any way, then the path ahead is rather simple, don't read it 
It's my personal honest opinion, much as everything else has been that I've written in this section.
If there’s one thing that paintball has taught me in the 27 years I’ve been involved, you never know what’s coming round the corner, or more to the point, who’s coming round the corner.
Over the years, our sport has played host to many different characters - the vast majority of whom are pretty good people, others are quite interesting, a few that are absolutely barking mad and last but not least, some absolute fukin as$holes.
And it’s that final category that inevitably hosts the subject of this final chapter.
We’re all aware of the maxim, ‘’Save the best till last’ …. but on this occasion, I’ve purposely bucked the trend and saved the worst till last.
I don’t really wanna start this post on an apologist note but I think I need to because of its sheer length:
This post concerns one rather obnoxious individual whose capacity for self-delusion is matched only by his feelings of self-importance.
When I finished this post and saw how long it was, I thought, ‘oh sh!te’, I better edit it down because even for me, this was loooooonnng.
I tried every which way I could but I found it a difficult task to accomplish and my initial attempts to cut back on the number of words resulted in me actually increasing the number so I thought 'Fuhk it, he can have it both barrels.'
I eventually gave up and so, as some people may observe, ‘it is what it is’ ….
During those 27 years I’ve been in paintball, I’ve accumulated many friends from all over the world, and a few enemies along the way which I suppose isn’t all that surprising.
As to why I’ve made these enemies?
Well, I never set out to make enemies; I seem to have this natural affinity for upsetting a$sholes.
They’ve either done something against the interests of our sport, against me personally or against any of my friends, and when things like this happen, the location where it all gets played out, is generally on here, the pages of p8ntballer.com.
When it kicks off on here, all of paintball’s dirty linen, all its dramas and all the intrigues get splashed across p8ntballer.com for all to see; some people like to get involved and post their opinions while others make for the side-lines, grabbing the popcorn as they sit down in readiness for a forum ping-pong match of abuse and mutual derision.
Some of our more pacifist-type members suggest this type of crap should be left unaddressed and we should leave such dramas well alone but the facts and figures tend to belie that - it turns out, these type dramas are a popular read, viewing figures go through the roof if there’s a big enough ‘clash of personalities’ going on – everyone wants to see what’s happening, good or bad.
It seems, news sells, especially bad news .... I must add though, I've never set out to write anything merely to increase the site traffic, it just happens that way sometimes.
On a personal note, I’m not gonna go on a wordy defence of what I’ve done in my time, I’ve already put my hands up for a lot of it in the previous chapters of this thread, all I am gonna say on the matter is this:- If I were the sort of individual some people like to suggest I am, then I wouldn’t be sitting here on p8ntballer.com with virtually all of the top industry companies advertising on our site.….
These industry guys would soon jump this p8ntballer.com ship if what some people say were true about me irrespective of any friendships I might have.
On another note, the vast majority of us in the industry get along just fine and that’s the way we all like it but …. every now and then, the curtains are winched back and the spotlight turned on to reveal an as$hole slithering its way onto centre stage leaving his slime behind him… we [industry] all know the identity of these as$holes - a few do business with them in the sense they’ll use them to further their own interests which of course is fine as long as they don’t allow themselves to get too involved otherwise there’ll inevitably be some collateral damage.
And that’s something that quite a few people in our industry have discovered for themselves when dealing with the subject of this last post.
Just recently, one of our industry people, Simon Cole, didn’t heed those warnings and it nearly cost him tens of thousands of pounds, Simon is one of our industry's most enduring characters, he's well-liked, personable, professional and more to the point, he's trusted … but more of that sorry saga later.
Revelations Act 1
Personally, I think the subject of this last post is just about the lowest of all the slime-balls I’ve ever encountered in our sport and if what I say is true, then you may well agree with what I say but the question then rightfully becomes, is what I say the truth?
Some people might suggest, ‘There are two sides to every truth’ but that’s inherently misleading because if I declare a truth such as 2+2=4, and some dick-head ventures, 2+2=5, then there’s obviously a problem.
Two differing opinions but one is a derivative of reason and the other, a derivative of a male cow’s ass..
Everyone is of course entitled to an opinion but in true Orwellian style, some are more entitled to an opinion than others.
Unsurprisingly, the subject of my ‘last in the series’ post is a specimen called timothy barnett - an absolute masterpiece of rectal engineering.
Most people in paintball know he’s not on my Christmas card list but it may well prove useful if I document the whys and wherefores of just why this post is about him, if indeed you are curious or need any clarification.
I suppose the first thing I would like to suggest is, timothy is as close to being a text-book megalomaniac as I’ve ever had the misfortune to encounter.
After reading this, you may, or may not agree as to whether or not this suggestion holds any water.
I’m no psychologist but when you are made aware of some of the things this guy has said and done, the word, ‘megalomaniac’ slithers out of the paintball cesspit and you've got little choice but to give it your attention - enter timothy barnett …….. ‘timothy’ .... awwwww …. what a lovely name that is …… it certainly invokes 'terror' into my heart, no really :/
On with the show .. and my first impressions ....
I will readily concede I’ve had little to do with him personally, and what contact I’ve had constituted one phone-call and a couple of emails.
I realise it’s not much to go on but come to think of it, I’ve never met Adolf Hitler but I know quite a lot about him.
They say, ‘first impressions count’ and there’s more than a little truth to that .. my first impression of timothy was laid down during the one and only phone call I’ve had with him a few years back.
I’m afraid these impressions weren’t encouraging ……
A few years back, I allowed him to use our forum to promote some events he had going on, it was a freebie for him and I only made one condition to him using our forum.
He promised he would honour that condition …………. but people like timothy have an enduring sense of entitlement that inevitably means he will follow his own self-obsessed course regardless of any promises he may have undertaken with other people ..
He broke his word to me inside a month or so – as soon as he did it, I didn’t bother to contact him, I immediately fuhk’d him off out of it and banned him from coming anywhere near our site again.
I was annoyed because I was giving him a free ride in terms of advertising and he only had to abide by that one condition, just one.
And so, timothy didn’t exactly get off on the right footing with me but this wasn’t an aberration on his part, it was to prove symptomatic of a whole slew of personality traits he went on to exhibit.
To give you an idea of the way this timothy thinks, I am gonna tell you what was said in that first [and only] phone call I had with him, it was a very strange phone call indeed.
The Phone Call .....
During that conversation, he talked about a few things but before I get into those comments, I wanna make something crystal-clear here; everything I say on this matter is truthful, I swear on my kids’ life it is …. the comments I attribute to him may not be verbatim but they are certainly close enough.
It may well be a little inappropriate to swear on my kids but I need people to know what this individual is really like, you can either respect any integrity I might have, or indeed, you may believe I am the sort of person who would lie using my kids as assurance .. your call !
It wasn’t long into the conversation when timothy seemed quite keen to tell me he’d been described as the ‘Robbo of the rec/scenario scene' - I didn’t believe for one second he was ever told that – he maybe wanted to ingratiate himself, I dunno, but I was neither impressed with what he claimed nor was I convinced … I was however, prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt … at that stage.
The benefit of the doubt was however misplaced because he then went on to tell me he’d ‘just had to beat someone up’ because the guy had apparently insulted timothy’s wife …
How chivalrous of him I thought to myself but I really didn’t know if anyone had actually insulted his wife - I also didn’t know if the insult was warranted or not but I chose to assume it was just another dollop of barnett-bullsh!t.
Now, even if it were true, why on earth would you bring that stuff into the first conversation you’ve ever had with someone?
The only explanation I can think of is, he might have heard a few things and believed I would be impressed by his self-proclaimed fighting prowess - I wasn’t, I just thought he was a prihk …
It seemed a very strange thing to say but when you read between the lines, it will prove consistent with what I’ll say later on in terms of his personality.
The upshot?
He didn’t impress me at all; in fact, he actually achieved the polar opposite, I just thought he was just another wannabee tough guy who couldn’t negotiate a fight with a koala bear let alone a real straightener.
If he ever wishes to prove his macho credentials in such a fashion then I’ll gladly entertain him in a heartbeat …I’ve already made a generous offer to meet him somewhere but as of yet, no such undertaking has been accepted … I wonder why not :/
Could it be he’s not the ‘man’ he likes to think he is? ….. I think so !
I realise this isn't exactly the most civilised course to take but sometimes in life, you have to stand up and be counted especially when one party is acting the tough-guy, and the other is willing to compete on those grounds.
The truth of the matter is, he knows damned well how that will turn out ....
Some of you may be justifiably wondering why I even bother with this turd and it’s a fair point because it looks as though it’s a personal vendetta, and that’s true, I’m cast-iron guilty of that - but that doesn’t change the points I’m raising here and nor does it change the dangers I’ll be highlighting.
When I first started to hear things about timothy, it generally came from friends of mine from within our industry.
His behaviour increasingly displayed the traits of a megalomaniac and so when I decided to write this critique of him, I looked up the word ‘megalomaniac’ because I wanted to know just how symptomatic timothy is of this condition:-
Here are some of the defining symptoms of megalomania:-
He will of course deny such an observation but 'actions' always speak louder than words.
One of his other great ‘gifts’ seems to be an unbridled ability to upset people in what seems like an unnaturally short period of time.
He has somehow managed to piss off some of the top people in our industry, and these people ain’t just anybody, these are the good guys of our industry who do their best for the paintball player, both rec and tourney.
And so, what does timothy actually do to elicit these reactions in people and more to the point, who are these people?
I'll come to them later ....
timothy seems to have this subverted notion of his own importance; he feels he’s superior to all those around - he’s threatened various people in our retail industry by saying outlandish things like, ‘I’m gonna destroy you and your business’ blah blah blah !!! ..
I have heard that particular phrase from about three or four different people within our industry who have attributed it to timothy when delivering his ridiculous threats – it seems it’s becoming timothy’s mantra every time someone has a problem with him.
timothy is increasingly falling short on his promises where either trading partners are compromised or indeed, his customers who turn up expecting one thing but getting another.
When these shortfalls are brought up with him either on the phone or on a forum, he attacks these people with these insane threats of destruction.
I’d laugh if he wasn’t so pathetic .....
Just how he intended to ‘destroy’ these people’s businesses, I’m not sure because he wields no power of any significance other than the power he imagines inside his head.
He thinks he wields influence, the reality is, he deals in effluence.
As of yet, he has neither destroyed nor adversely ‘affected’ any of the people he has sworn to annihilate, it would seem he’s nothing more than a big-mouthed wannabee who’s devoid of his allotted ‘Y’ chromosome.
Those at the Front, Please Duck - The Flying Chair Trick, as performed by Steve Baldwin ….
For those who don’t know, there’s a guy in paintball called Steve Baldwin, he’s been a friend of mine of over 27 years - we started out in paintball at roughly the same time together and we’ve remained friends ever since – he owns the Millennium tournament event series, Manic Paintball, GiMilsim and is respected both sides of the Atlantic.
He’s been extremely successful in paintball and has been acutely influential in the way European paintball has evolved from its inception – without Steve in our sport, we would be in a much poorer place because of the way he has steered our tournament scene over the 28 years he's been involved in our sport - he’s not really the sort of person you wanna upset …
A year or so ago, I went down to see Steve.
While I was there, one of the guys Steve works with, blurted out, ‘Go on Steve, tell him what happened with timothy’ …. Steve then went on to tell me he’d ‘picked up a chair and threw it at timothy’ …
I didn’t believe it because in all the time I’ve known Steve, he had never got violent, not even close.
If ever Steve found himself anywhere near any trouble, he’d be overtaking Usain Bolt to get away from it, Steve is most definitely a pacifist and a self-declared ‘lover not a fighter’ ….
However, Steve went on to tell me that he did actually throw the chair at timothy and when I asked ‘why’, he recounted that timothy wouldn’t stop winding him up with inappropriate comments; Steve told him to stop but timothy didn’t, he chose to continue insulting Steve; the incident then went up a gear, and the chair was thrown.
Unfortunately, Steve’s aim wasn’t so good, much like when he played paintball.
There were others present from the industry and so it was always gonna get out but seeing as Steve told me personally, I knew it wasn’t BS.
For Steve to do something like that, the provocation must have been serious.
It would seem that timothy deliberately set out to insult and annoy Steve but there’s seemingly no motive other than to assume timothy takes some sort of twisted pleasure in doing it.
After Steve told me about the flying chair trick, we went out for a meal and then Steve dropped another bombshell on me just as I started on my prawn-cocktail - he told me that during a conversation with timothy, [presumably prior to the flying chair incident] he had told Steve that, he’d ‘ran me out of paintball’ …. I nearly choked on a prawn when he told me .... I looked back across the table to see if there were any signs of Steve winding me up but alas there were none, he was serious.
Steve obviously realised timothy was bull****ting but I think Steve told me, not to wind me up but because he knew I wouldn’t like people being told that sort of crap ... he was right !
Mind you, if it were true, then who the fuhk is writing this?
Much as timothy would love to see me gone from paintball, I’m afraid he just doesn’t possess the necessary resources and those deficiencies include physical, intellectual, financial and industry influence.
But, let’s face it, it’s nothing more than ‘sticks and stones’ and so why the fuhk should I worry what the hell he says?
Erm …. Coz I don’t like people talking that sorta crap about me but I fully realise the people who do know me wouldn’t believe timothy anyways but still, I don’t like him saying it … … saying things like that about someone is a dangerous game to play especially when you do it so many times … someone, somewhere, sometime is gonna react … I’m not hinting or implying that person is gonna be me, I’m just stating the potential consequences, that’s all.
Mr Green turns into Mr Angry ….
A lot of you guys out there will have heard of Ged Green of [ex] WDP – he’s one of the most respected people in our industry - he invented Hyper-Ball, he developed the first electronic semi-auto marker from the UK, the Angels [Smart Parts were also joint first developers of the electronic marker with their Shocker from the US] Ged also created the revamped NPPL holding its inaugural event in 2003 on Huntington Beach in the US - in that one step, he reset the bar for all promoters across the world of paintball - Ged is a true visionary of our sport, extremely well-liked and equally respected around the world of paintball.
Ged is one of our true legends, a self-effacing man and genial, I don’t know of anyone who has ever said a bad work about Ged. And for the amount of time Ged has been in our sport [from 1985] it’s amazing that I haven’t heard of a single person saying a bad word about him.
A couple or so years back, Ged Green was involved in a three-way arrangement that included timothy and Niall Squires to promote rec events up and down the country … it took timothy a matter of weeks before Ged immediately broke off all ties with him and refused to have anything more to do with him leaving Niall still in bed with timothy … it wasn’t long before Niall followed Ged’s lead and got the hell out.
I spoke to Ged a few months after he pulled out of that arrangement, I asked him, what the hell timothy had done to pis$ him off so much but all Ged would say was, ‘I could never work with that guy again’ ….
Now, Ged’s departure from this tripartite arrangement rang alarm bells around the industry – timothy had somehow managed to seriously pis$ off one of the most influential and respected figures in our sport.
Along with Steve Baldwin, these are just two of the people in our industry who you really don’t wanna piss off but timothy managed to somehow.
timothy’s history thus far has some common elements running through it – he seems to use people to get to a place he has targeted and as soon as he’s there, he will inevitably betray or end up estranging those very people who have helped him.
timothy’s appealing ………. for money !
The reason I have targeted timothy is known by most ballers but before I get into that – when I first attacked him on p8ntballer.com a few years back, it was with reference to the money he had collected in donations to a monetary appeal called, ‘Support for Soldiers’ he had launched - it was obviously close to the charity name of ‘Help for Heroes’ which was a recognised charity appeal at that time.
The naming of timothy’s appeal was no accident, it was cynically close enough to ‘Help for Heroes’ so as to maximise the donations given.
Thousands of pounds were donated to timothy’s appeal … I wasn’t aware of how long the appeal had been running but I then had a few people from the industry get in touch telling me they were suspicious with the way things were being done with regard to the collection of monies to the appeal fund.
I don’t know if they had any grounds for their suspicions but it certainly warranted a closer look.
I think it worth noting that a lot of people have a problem in airing their suspicions or their opinions in public, such as a forum.
It might be they don’t like getting involved or it’s politically sensitive for whatever reason.
Fortunately, our sport does have a safety-valve whereupon anything and everything can command air-time, that safety-valve is p8ntballer.com.
Most ballers know the gist of what went down with this saga involving barnett but for the sakes of those who don’t, here’s a brief’ish synopsis:-
The Money Go-Round ... Now You See it, Now You Don't, Now You do !!! .......
When you set up a charity’esque appeal for donations from the public, there should be a clear line of accountability of the monies as it’s paid in.
And this accountability and recording of transactions has to be done from day one …
All receiving accounts need to have been set up along with the all the necessary administrative resources to funnel the money through to its particular destination.
This formal accountability is to try and make it hard for people to defraud or embezzle money away from the designated charity or appeal.
And so, transparency is key when it comes to making a public appeal for money … this type of appeal has been used many times for fraudulent purposes and the reason is, there is no actual real-time vetting because it’s not a registered charity... it proves to be an absolute god-send for the criminally-minded.
The temptation of having thousands of pounds in an account that you have total control over is one temptation too much for some individuals, especially when there is no real line of accountability and especially when you are short of dosh.
Knowing timothy was supposed to have this clear line of accountability, I publicly asked him to publish that information either on his website or p8ntballer.com because there had been questions being asked as to what was going on …
Now, if he was up to something then I figured he wouldn’t have the appropriate records available at the time of asking.
I also figured, if he was legit then he would post the appeal details just to let people know everything was above board, common-sense really.
Predictably though, he responded by attacking me, time after time after time – telling everybody I was a mad old man who should be locked up .. blah, blah, blah.
Interestingly though, he was reported as saying, he didn’t wish to publish the accounts because it was me who was asking for them - he felt he wasn’t answerable to me but he'd completely missed the point, he was answerable to the people who had donated, he was answerable to them and to the people the money was supposed to have been going to.
It became painfully obvious, the ‘accounts’ needed to be published to quell any doubts; the fact it was me who was calling for them to be published was an annoyance for him … his little lackeys joined in the attack on me but not one of those silly people realised what he was really doing, or if they did, they elected to ignore it .. he was distracting them by attacking me - hardly a sophisticated ploy but he wasn’t really dealing with the intellectually well-endowed.
He needed people to be distracted from the real question ...’what was happening to the money that was paid in’?
The problem for timothy was, how long could he keep them distracted before some of them ended up suggesting, ‘Just publish them tim, shut that Robbo idiot up for good’ … it was to prove impossible for timothy to do that in an appropriate time-frame…. timothy continually stated he had the accounts but declaring, he didn’t see why he should publish them ... each and every appeal to see them was ignored …
In the end, Ledzy, who was trying to act as an intermediary got involved and told him to publish those accounts because things were looking desperate - all timothy would say was, he didn't see why he should.
'He doesn't see why he should' .... WTF ??????
Ledzy spelled it out easily enough by telling him that he should publish them if indeed he had them but nothing was forthcoming I'm afraid.
Ledzy's advice fell on stony ground ....
Now, I ask you guys, if you had someone going on a public forum and implying you were attempting to defraud people, and you had the information available to prove you weren’t, then I’ll bet my house those accounts would be published in a frikkin heartbeat, if only to have the pleasure of shutting me up and proving me wrong.
Especially since they should have been publicly available anyway, it’s not as if I was asking for anything innapropriate or asking for private information – it was a PUBLIC appeal and as such, the donations should have been made PUBLIC when requested.
He didn’t publish them because he couldn’t publish them and that was because he didn’t have them at that time .….. many weeks later he put up a mickey-mouse set of Excel accounts that could have been drafted in less than an hour by a one-eyed monkey and a keyboard … and even though timothy tried to rally his troops by declaring, ‘the accounts are up’, he had missed the boat by a long way, it was obvious to anyone with an iQ above their shoe size what had actually happened.
So what, what does all this really prove?
I think it’s obvious those accounts weren’t readily available because they hadn’t been compiled, we can assume that much easily enough but why weren’t they compiled??
Was it incompetence or by design?
I’m no Sherlock Holmes and thankfully I don’t have to be in this case but I can reasonably ask the following question:-
Why weren’t there any accounts available when I had first asked for them?
If he was against the principle of posting the accounts just because I had asked for them, then why post them weeks later?
It just didn’t add up… and I doubt the accounts did either.
It was obvious timothy didn’t possess the required accounts but what was he to do?
He did what anyone in his position would do and that was to tread water and wait until it blew over.
Bottom line is this, if I was to hypothetically set out to defraud people by setting up a charity type appeal, then this is how I’d do it.
It’s Fraud 101 …
If I wanted to set out to defraud people who have donated into a charity appeal then I would firstly direct all donated monies into one account that I had control of …. After an appropriate period of time, I would then filter off what I had earmarked for my back-pocket and then allow the remainder of the money to be fed through to the designated beneficiary of any donations.
The person who receives said money has no real idea of how much was donated, all information with respect to that is hypothetically controlled by myself.
In fact, nobody other than the account holder knows how much is paid in ...
The real trick here is this, you allow things to settle down after the main surge of donations has peaked out.
If nobody questions anything, then the dirty deed is done i.e. the money is filtered off and the rest given over to the person who is the beneficiary.
The good thing [if you can call it that] is, if someone does say something and wants to know all the details before I have syphoned it off, then I’d just push all the money through to the beneficiary and this is why there is that period of grace so things settle down before the actual fraud takes place..
It’s a bit like, a guy equips himself with a gun and a mask, he goes into the bank with a view to rob it, all the time nobody realises what he's up to, he can rob the bank as planned but …. If as he makes his way inside the bank, someone was to say,' I think it looks like you are going to rob this bank‘ … you calmly turn back and leave, no harm done, the gun and mask are cast aside leaving him as innocent as the day is long … he has no evidence on him to show his intent, and since the police cannot read his mind, he gets away with it.
The beauty is, ostensibly, he hasn’t done anything wrong because it’s hard to prove conspiracy to rob a bank if all the evidence is gone ….. he’s hardly gonna stick his hands up for that when he knows full well he’s in the clear.
Is this what I think happened with the charity?
Well, put it this way, there was never gonna be any evidence as soon as I asked for the accounts, the plan was fuhk’d from then on.
It was then down to a damage limitation exercise which necessarily included a set of accounts to be posted, albeit waaaaay too late – his feigned indignation regarding my questions and implications sounded hollow to all those who had no affiliation with him and the reasonably minded.
If I hadn’t jumped in and asked for those accounts, what do I think would have happened?
My opinion is obvious …..let’s just say the beneficiary would have had a different amount of money in his account if I hadn’t said a thing.
At least the soldiers got what they deserved …. Didn’t they?
Now, if what I say is true, and thus far it is, then do we really need such an individual involved in our sport?
Someone who would do something like that isn’t gonna be the sort of person we want anywhere near us … or maybe some people might ignore any wrongdoing such as this but I’d like to think the average baller would possess a little self-respect and steer well clear of such a specimen.
People may of course venture he runs good events, well, Hitler ran a good economy, even the most pernicious of individuals may have things they might be good at but you have to make a decision sometimes as to whether or not you wish to continue dealing with such an individual.
I mentioned earlier about naming names with regard to people who timothy has seriously pissed off and in some cases threatened.
In the past, I've never really named names in terms of which people came to me early on with their suspicions and also the people who have been betrayed or threatened by him but I'm now gonna name names because this prihk has been doing his stuff for long enough.
If any of those people I name wish to come forward and deny anything I've said, no problem but they won't ... and they won't because what I've said is the truth as I remember it.
Most ballers know the guys I am gonna talk about here, the vast majority know these people as good guys and they have the player’s interests at heart.
I’ve had personal conversations with the following industry people, all of whom have recounted threats from timothy that went something like, ‘I will destroy you and your business’.
Chris and Jon at Lips:
Neil and Thomas at BZ Paintball
Jim Frensham and Tim Taylor at Warped Paintball
Paul Banks of Tippmann
Simon Cole - Agent for Maxs [Simon's problem is detailed below]
Myself .....
All of those guys above have either been threatened by barnett, in terms of his 'destroy' comments or he has betrayed an agreement he had with them.
Steve Baldwin and Ged Green have already been included in the list anyway.
And now we come to another example of timothy’s ‘business ethics’ – our industry isn’t exactly thriving at the moment and at times like these, trust between the industry is important especially when dealing with large sums of money …
An integral part of all business is 'trust' .... without it, the wheels start to come off.
Problem is, this trust is an emergent property of the individuals involved and only works if everybody pulls their weight but it only takes one to upset the apple-cart.
Simon Cole is a long-term industry guy who I’ve been friends with for over 25 years, he’s well-liked and more importantly, he can be trusted to keep his word.
Simon has been around since year dot and to my knowledge has never had an unpaid bill, he’s never cheated anyone of anything – he’s a stand-up guy.
Simon has had a lot of involvement with timothy and he tried to ignore what was being said because as he told me once, barnnet had never fuhk’d him over [up until then] and so as far as Simon was concerned, timothy was ‘ok’ ..
I’m not suggesting Simon was an advocate for timothy but he did business with him on a regular basis … ‘did’ being the operative word.
At Last - He’s seen the light, he’s finally seen the f’in light .....
About two months ago, my phone bleeped and splashed across the screen was a message from Simon, it read:-
‘You were right all along Pete, my opinion’s changed, I was wrong, the guy turned out to be an old fashioned conman, I feel a bit stupid now’!
That’s as near verbatim as I can remember ....There was a fair bit more to this message but I think it’s better I leave the remainder out but let’s just say it’s a somewhat emotional and descriptive indictment of timothy’s integrity, or in this case, lack of it.
Simon obviously felt a bit stupid because we’d had several conversations between us concerning timothy where he’d tended to give timothy the benefit of the doubt, but now, he’d finally seen the truth, exactly what I said would happen, did.
I should have felt some degree of satisfaction on receiving a message like that but I didn’t, I just felt as though barnett had once again, stiffed another person in our industry.
Simon works as an agent for a guy called Manfred Ulrich - Manfred is a joint owner of the Millennium tournament series, he also owns Maxs Paintball in Germany and is one of the biggest paintball companies in Europe.
Manfred is also one of the richest guys in paintball and certainly no fool ...
Apparently, barnett had ordered some special paint for an event, it was to be clear shell paint with a clear fill because the site where the event was to be staged demanded that all the paint that was to be used, must be clear – the cost for that paint was in the tens of thousands of pounds ...
Manfred wanted payment up front because he had to make a financial commitment to get the paint specially made and so he wasn’t prepared to offer credit on the deal for fear of something going tits up when it comes to paying – it would seem as though Manfred had his doubts about timothy even then.
However, timothy couldn’t or wouldn’t come up with the money up front … it indicated to some that he wasn’t in a position to pay the money up front but for the moment let’s give timothy the benefit of the doubt on this one ... leastwise for the moment.
A subsequent agreement was reached to pay the paint invoice from Maxs immediately after the event.
Unfortunately, timothy didn’t keep his side of the bargain because when the time came, he refused to pay .....
After numerous calls by Simon to try to collect the money, and with a series of excuses given by timothy, Manfred started to get edgy and began to question timothy’s intention to pay.
It was at this point, Simon made a big mistake because he told Manfred that he would guarantee the money if barnett didn't pay.
It was a display of trust on Simon’s part that was doomed to go bandy …
Oh my Simon, such a trusting but foolish soul …..Simon knows full well what I think of timothy [hence the text message above] but he took his own counsel and went ahead with his personal guarantee. …Ooops !!! ..
The paint had been supplied, accepted and subsequently used; timothy had taken all the money from the event but then refused to pay the invoice on the grounds the paint wasn’t dissolving away as fast as he’d expected.
The event had been held in a theme park and was scheduled to open to the public about a month after timothy’s event and so they don’t really like seeing a million splat-marks around their sideshows and rollercoasters - they therefore mandated that the paint should be clear and the venue should be left as they found it.
barnett had to go on clear-up detail ... shame :/
It’s worth pointing out that a week after timothy complained about the paint being allegedly ‘not fit for purpose’, he actually bought more of the offending paint for another event - I’m kinda guessing it was prepaid this time.
The same paint however was also previously used for another event with no issues, so it seemed the only thing that was different in this case were the conditions placed upon timothy by the site owners, one of them being, ‘clean up your **** before you leave’.
barnett's refusal to pay had consequences, especially for Simon.
And for those people who were thinking timothy didn’t have the capital to pay for the paint up front in the first place, they were now grinning like someone who’d just smoked a foot-long spliff.
Simon however, was understandably less inclined to engage his laughing gear.
timothy’s refusal to pay was based upon Simon allegedly guaranteeing the paint would quickly clear by itself but the truth was, Simon never gave a time-limit qualifier.
If timothy had a problem with the paint then why didn’t he bring it up before selling it because he’d already used it anyway?
He had no problem in taking the cash in for it and yet he has the temerity to refuse paying for it … hardly the stuff of honourable business.
Now, the real problem here is, timothy knew damned well Simon had guaranteed the money and as far as timothy was concerned, Simon was now gonna have to pay Manfred.
What a sick fuhk barnett was for even thinking about doing that to so-called 'friend'.
Simon it seemed, was just another patsy that barnett had used and abused ....
But was timothy’s claim justified?
Nope .. no guarantee of a time-line for paint dispersion was given by Simon and so there was no breach of contract/trust.
Manfred though, was not a happy man .. and Manfred, just like Ged Green and Steve Baldwin before him, is not a man you wanna piss off.
timothy wriggled and slithered and finally had to keep his promise to pay.
barnett began to realise the very real effect his refusal to pay Manfred would have within the industry - nobody would ever do business with him again leastwise on any credit terms afforded to him.
barnett had painted himself into a corner and there was only one way out, he had to pay …… but even then, there was a snag.
As I said, the cynics among us would have us believe timothy’s financial liquidity wasn’t as liquid as it should have been and so if he could get out of paying Manfred, it would certainly help refurbish timothy’s bank account.
Hold on a minute though, didn’t I just say that timothy had agreed to pay????
Oh yeah … I did type that ….. well, then surely, it’s all ok isn’t it?
I’m afraid not, timothy might have agreed to pay but he’s only doing it piecemeal, one bit at a time until the invoice is paid off which of course will only be achieved if and when the last instalment is met, and let’s face it, can anyone seriously trust timothy to pay the debt in full anyway?
From what I’ve heard, up until today, the bill still hasn’t been paid.
He’s either so tight for cash that he cannot pay it all off or he’s being an as$hole and deliberately paying bit by bit, my opinion?
It’s both !
To me, it just reeks of that same stench that shrouded timothy and his ‘Support for Soldiers’ appeal ….
Simon Cole is the latest casualty of timothy’s treachery and I’m sure there’ll be more as time goes on.
And so to finish ….. I wanna qualify two last things, the first I mention will maybe leave me open for some criticism because I’d already said the Abbott problem was now finished.
The main reason it went on for so long was not because of what happened in France, it was a comment he made concerning my kids ... I don’t wish to repeat it because I’ve put all that stuff to bed and I’ve moved on but I think I needed to qualify just why the Abbott thing continued waaaay past its ‘sell by date’.
As for why timothy is still in my sights?
It’s not just about his ‘management’ of the donated funds, or indeed what he said about running me out of paintball, or any of the other stuff concerning friends of mine in our industry he’s threatened but ..
When it was all kicking off with timothy re the charity appeal accounts, timothy had wound up his little band of soldier-boys and some were coming on p8ntballer and attacking me.
Their collective iQ failed to nudge into double figures so I wasn’t too concerned but one of them posted on my site, something that was to prove unforgivable; one of timothy’s boys called me a ‘cxnt’ and expressed his wish that I ‘die of cancer’ ... now a comment like that is obviously bang out of order and needs addressing.
Within an hour or so, I had the guy’s address on my phone and I was deliberating whether or not to go visit him .. he was just a silly kid and so any visit was going to mean his mum and dad getting involved if indeed he still lived with them. I could have easily made alternate plans and exacted my displeasure vicariously but I never went down that road either ......
I’m not trying to impress anyone by telling you this, it’s just the way it unfolded that day and hopefully, you may understand just why I reacted that way in a moment.
Thankfully, I didn’t go to see him but the real problem with his post was .. my wife had been diagnosed with skin cancer a few weeks prior to that post going on my forum ... I was not amused.
A few friends such as Ledz and Piper already knew about my wife, Pipes had gotten on the phone to warn me that ‘something’ had been posted on my site. It would seem that post upset quite a few people, and not just me; the guy who posted it was roundly attacked for using the c##t word and the ‘cancer’ comment.
timothy immediately tried to distance himself from his employee’s comment by saying he would sack the guy for posting that message ... but, did timothy keep his word?
No, of course he didn’t .... why not?
Because everything I’ve said about timothy thus far is the truth .... that’s why he didn’t keep his word.
He is to blame for the ‘cancer‘ comment, maybe not 100% but the majority sits firmly in his lap, he stands accountable to me for that … and so does that little turd who did actually post it.
Our sport doesn't need barnett in any way shape or form, in my opinion, he's always one step-away from betraying yet another friend or customer .... I think it's time paintball evacuated its bowels and directed barnett from whence he came.
PS By the way, Wendy, have you received the payment promised by barnett?
It's my personal honest opinion, much as everything else has been that I've written in this section.
If there’s one thing that paintball has taught me in the 27 years I’ve been involved, you never know what’s coming round the corner, or more to the point, who’s coming round the corner.
Over the years, our sport has played host to many different characters - the vast majority of whom are pretty good people, others are quite interesting, a few that are absolutely barking mad and last but not least, some absolute fukin as$holes.
And it’s that final category that inevitably hosts the subject of this final chapter.
We’re all aware of the maxim, ‘’Save the best till last’ …. but on this occasion, I’ve purposely bucked the trend and saved the worst till last.
I don’t really wanna start this post on an apologist note but I think I need to because of its sheer length:
This post concerns one rather obnoxious individual whose capacity for self-delusion is matched only by his feelings of self-importance.
When I finished this post and saw how long it was, I thought, ‘oh sh!te’, I better edit it down because even for me, this was loooooonnng.
I tried every which way I could but I found it a difficult task to accomplish and my initial attempts to cut back on the number of words resulted in me actually increasing the number so I thought 'Fuhk it, he can have it both barrels.'
I eventually gave up and so, as some people may observe, ‘it is what it is’ ….
During those 27 years I’ve been in paintball, I’ve accumulated many friends from all over the world, and a few enemies along the way which I suppose isn’t all that surprising.
As to why I’ve made these enemies?
Well, I never set out to make enemies; I seem to have this natural affinity for upsetting a$sholes.
They’ve either done something against the interests of our sport, against me personally or against any of my friends, and when things like this happen, the location where it all gets played out, is generally on here, the pages of p8ntballer.com.
When it kicks off on here, all of paintball’s dirty linen, all its dramas and all the intrigues get splashed across p8ntballer.com for all to see; some people like to get involved and post their opinions while others make for the side-lines, grabbing the popcorn as they sit down in readiness for a forum ping-pong match of abuse and mutual derision.
Some of our more pacifist-type members suggest this type of crap should be left unaddressed and we should leave such dramas well alone but the facts and figures tend to belie that - it turns out, these type dramas are a popular read, viewing figures go through the roof if there’s a big enough ‘clash of personalities’ going on – everyone wants to see what’s happening, good or bad.
It seems, news sells, especially bad news .... I must add though, I've never set out to write anything merely to increase the site traffic, it just happens that way sometimes.
On a personal note, I’m not gonna go on a wordy defence of what I’ve done in my time, I’ve already put my hands up for a lot of it in the previous chapters of this thread, all I am gonna say on the matter is this:- If I were the sort of individual some people like to suggest I am, then I wouldn’t be sitting here on p8ntballer.com with virtually all of the top industry companies advertising on our site.….
These industry guys would soon jump this p8ntballer.com ship if what some people say were true about me irrespective of any friendships I might have.
On another note, the vast majority of us in the industry get along just fine and that’s the way we all like it but …. every now and then, the curtains are winched back and the spotlight turned on to reveal an as$hole slithering its way onto centre stage leaving his slime behind him… we [industry] all know the identity of these as$holes - a few do business with them in the sense they’ll use them to further their own interests which of course is fine as long as they don’t allow themselves to get too involved otherwise there’ll inevitably be some collateral damage.
And that’s something that quite a few people in our industry have discovered for themselves when dealing with the subject of this last post.
Just recently, one of our industry people, Simon Cole, didn’t heed those warnings and it nearly cost him tens of thousands of pounds, Simon is one of our industry's most enduring characters, he's well-liked, personable, professional and more to the point, he's trusted … but more of that sorry saga later.
Revelations Act 1
Personally, I think the subject of this last post is just about the lowest of all the slime-balls I’ve ever encountered in our sport and if what I say is true, then you may well agree with what I say but the question then rightfully becomes, is what I say the truth?
Some people might suggest, ‘There are two sides to every truth’ but that’s inherently misleading because if I declare a truth such as 2+2=4, and some dick-head ventures, 2+2=5, then there’s obviously a problem.
Two differing opinions but one is a derivative of reason and the other, a derivative of a male cow’s ass..
Everyone is of course entitled to an opinion but in true Orwellian style, some are more entitled to an opinion than others.
Unsurprisingly, the subject of my ‘last in the series’ post is a specimen called timothy barnett - an absolute masterpiece of rectal engineering.
Most people in paintball know he’s not on my Christmas card list but it may well prove useful if I document the whys and wherefores of just why this post is about him, if indeed you are curious or need any clarification.
I suppose the first thing I would like to suggest is, timothy is as close to being a text-book megalomaniac as I’ve ever had the misfortune to encounter.
After reading this, you may, or may not agree as to whether or not this suggestion holds any water.
I’m no psychologist but when you are made aware of some of the things this guy has said and done, the word, ‘megalomaniac’ slithers out of the paintball cesspit and you've got little choice but to give it your attention - enter timothy barnett …….. ‘timothy’ .... awwwww …. what a lovely name that is …… it certainly invokes 'terror' into my heart, no really :/
On with the show .. and my first impressions ....
I will readily concede I’ve had little to do with him personally, and what contact I’ve had constituted one phone-call and a couple of emails.
I realise it’s not much to go on but come to think of it, I’ve never met Adolf Hitler but I know quite a lot about him.
They say, ‘first impressions count’ and there’s more than a little truth to that .. my first impression of timothy was laid down during the one and only phone call I’ve had with him a few years back.
I’m afraid these impressions weren’t encouraging ……
A few years back, I allowed him to use our forum to promote some events he had going on, it was a freebie for him and I only made one condition to him using our forum.
He promised he would honour that condition …………. but people like timothy have an enduring sense of entitlement that inevitably means he will follow his own self-obsessed course regardless of any promises he may have undertaken with other people ..
He broke his word to me inside a month or so – as soon as he did it, I didn’t bother to contact him, I immediately fuhk’d him off out of it and banned him from coming anywhere near our site again.
I was annoyed because I was giving him a free ride in terms of advertising and he only had to abide by that one condition, just one.
And so, timothy didn’t exactly get off on the right footing with me but this wasn’t an aberration on his part, it was to prove symptomatic of a whole slew of personality traits he went on to exhibit.
To give you an idea of the way this timothy thinks, I am gonna tell you what was said in that first [and only] phone call I had with him, it was a very strange phone call indeed.
The Phone Call .....
During that conversation, he talked about a few things but before I get into those comments, I wanna make something crystal-clear here; everything I say on this matter is truthful, I swear on my kids’ life it is …. the comments I attribute to him may not be verbatim but they are certainly close enough.
It may well be a little inappropriate to swear on my kids but I need people to know what this individual is really like, you can either respect any integrity I might have, or indeed, you may believe I am the sort of person who would lie using my kids as assurance .. your call !
It wasn’t long into the conversation when timothy seemed quite keen to tell me he’d been described as the ‘Robbo of the rec/scenario scene' - I didn’t believe for one second he was ever told that – he maybe wanted to ingratiate himself, I dunno, but I was neither impressed with what he claimed nor was I convinced … I was however, prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt … at that stage.
The benefit of the doubt was however misplaced because he then went on to tell me he’d ‘just had to beat someone up’ because the guy had apparently insulted timothy’s wife …
How chivalrous of him I thought to myself but I really didn’t know if anyone had actually insulted his wife - I also didn’t know if the insult was warranted or not but I chose to assume it was just another dollop of barnett-bullsh!t.
Now, even if it were true, why on earth would you bring that stuff into the first conversation you’ve ever had with someone?
The only explanation I can think of is, he might have heard a few things and believed I would be impressed by his self-proclaimed fighting prowess - I wasn’t, I just thought he was a prihk …
It seemed a very strange thing to say but when you read between the lines, it will prove consistent with what I’ll say later on in terms of his personality.
The upshot?
He didn’t impress me at all; in fact, he actually achieved the polar opposite, I just thought he was just another wannabee tough guy who couldn’t negotiate a fight with a koala bear let alone a real straightener.
If he ever wishes to prove his macho credentials in such a fashion then I’ll gladly entertain him in a heartbeat …I’ve already made a generous offer to meet him somewhere but as of yet, no such undertaking has been accepted … I wonder why not :/
Could it be he’s not the ‘man’ he likes to think he is? ….. I think so !
I realise this isn't exactly the most civilised course to take but sometimes in life, you have to stand up and be counted especially when one party is acting the tough-guy, and the other is willing to compete on those grounds.
The truth of the matter is, he knows damned well how that will turn out ....
Some of you may be justifiably wondering why I even bother with this turd and it’s a fair point because it looks as though it’s a personal vendetta, and that’s true, I’m cast-iron guilty of that - but that doesn’t change the points I’m raising here and nor does it change the dangers I’ll be highlighting.
When I first started to hear things about timothy, it generally came from friends of mine from within our industry.
His behaviour increasingly displayed the traits of a megalomaniac and so when I decided to write this critique of him, I looked up the word ‘megalomaniac’ because I wanted to know just how symptomatic timothy is of this condition:-
Here are some of the defining symptoms of megalomania:-
- Delusion of being superior to others
- Delusion of greatness
- Delusion of having great social and political power
- Lack of empathy for anything
- Delusion of importance
- Egoistic
- Self-centred
- Want others to be fear of him
- High self confidence
- Manipulation over others
- Exaggerations
- Feeling of being a famous person
- Symptoms of mania or paranoid disorder
- Bad temper
- Mood swings
He will of course deny such an observation but 'actions' always speak louder than words.
One of his other great ‘gifts’ seems to be an unbridled ability to upset people in what seems like an unnaturally short period of time.
He has somehow managed to piss off some of the top people in our industry, and these people ain’t just anybody, these are the good guys of our industry who do their best for the paintball player, both rec and tourney.
And so, what does timothy actually do to elicit these reactions in people and more to the point, who are these people?
I'll come to them later ....
timothy seems to have this subverted notion of his own importance; he feels he’s superior to all those around - he’s threatened various people in our retail industry by saying outlandish things like, ‘I’m gonna destroy you and your business’ blah blah blah !!! ..
I have heard that particular phrase from about three or four different people within our industry who have attributed it to timothy when delivering his ridiculous threats – it seems it’s becoming timothy’s mantra every time someone has a problem with him.
timothy is increasingly falling short on his promises where either trading partners are compromised or indeed, his customers who turn up expecting one thing but getting another.
When these shortfalls are brought up with him either on the phone or on a forum, he attacks these people with these insane threats of destruction.
I’d laugh if he wasn’t so pathetic .....
Just how he intended to ‘destroy’ these people’s businesses, I’m not sure because he wields no power of any significance other than the power he imagines inside his head.
He thinks he wields influence, the reality is, he deals in effluence.
As of yet, he has neither destroyed nor adversely ‘affected’ any of the people he has sworn to annihilate, it would seem he’s nothing more than a big-mouthed wannabee who’s devoid of his allotted ‘Y’ chromosome.
Those at the Front, Please Duck - The Flying Chair Trick, as performed by Steve Baldwin ….
For those who don’t know, there’s a guy in paintball called Steve Baldwin, he’s been a friend of mine of over 27 years - we started out in paintball at roughly the same time together and we’ve remained friends ever since – he owns the Millennium tournament event series, Manic Paintball, GiMilsim and is respected both sides of the Atlantic.
He’s been extremely successful in paintball and has been acutely influential in the way European paintball has evolved from its inception – without Steve in our sport, we would be in a much poorer place because of the way he has steered our tournament scene over the 28 years he's been involved in our sport - he’s not really the sort of person you wanna upset …
A year or so ago, I went down to see Steve.
While I was there, one of the guys Steve works with, blurted out, ‘Go on Steve, tell him what happened with timothy’ …. Steve then went on to tell me he’d ‘picked up a chair and threw it at timothy’ …
I didn’t believe it because in all the time I’ve known Steve, he had never got violent, not even close.
If ever Steve found himself anywhere near any trouble, he’d be overtaking Usain Bolt to get away from it, Steve is most definitely a pacifist and a self-declared ‘lover not a fighter’ ….
However, Steve went on to tell me that he did actually throw the chair at timothy and when I asked ‘why’, he recounted that timothy wouldn’t stop winding him up with inappropriate comments; Steve told him to stop but timothy didn’t, he chose to continue insulting Steve; the incident then went up a gear, and the chair was thrown.
Unfortunately, Steve’s aim wasn’t so good, much like when he played paintball.
There were others present from the industry and so it was always gonna get out but seeing as Steve told me personally, I knew it wasn’t BS.
For Steve to do something like that, the provocation must have been serious.
It would seem that timothy deliberately set out to insult and annoy Steve but there’s seemingly no motive other than to assume timothy takes some sort of twisted pleasure in doing it.
After Steve told me about the flying chair trick, we went out for a meal and then Steve dropped another bombshell on me just as I started on my prawn-cocktail - he told me that during a conversation with timothy, [presumably prior to the flying chair incident] he had told Steve that, he’d ‘ran me out of paintball’ …. I nearly choked on a prawn when he told me .... I looked back across the table to see if there were any signs of Steve winding me up but alas there were none, he was serious.
Steve obviously realised timothy was bull****ting but I think Steve told me, not to wind me up but because he knew I wouldn’t like people being told that sort of crap ... he was right !
Mind you, if it were true, then who the fuhk is writing this?
Much as timothy would love to see me gone from paintball, I’m afraid he just doesn’t possess the necessary resources and those deficiencies include physical, intellectual, financial and industry influence.
But, let’s face it, it’s nothing more than ‘sticks and stones’ and so why the fuhk should I worry what the hell he says?
Erm …. Coz I don’t like people talking that sorta crap about me but I fully realise the people who do know me wouldn’t believe timothy anyways but still, I don’t like him saying it … … saying things like that about someone is a dangerous game to play especially when you do it so many times … someone, somewhere, sometime is gonna react … I’m not hinting or implying that person is gonna be me, I’m just stating the potential consequences, that’s all.
Mr Green turns into Mr Angry ….
A lot of you guys out there will have heard of Ged Green of [ex] WDP – he’s one of the most respected people in our industry - he invented Hyper-Ball, he developed the first electronic semi-auto marker from the UK, the Angels [Smart Parts were also joint first developers of the electronic marker with their Shocker from the US] Ged also created the revamped NPPL holding its inaugural event in 2003 on Huntington Beach in the US - in that one step, he reset the bar for all promoters across the world of paintball - Ged is a true visionary of our sport, extremely well-liked and equally respected around the world of paintball.
Ged is one of our true legends, a self-effacing man and genial, I don’t know of anyone who has ever said a bad work about Ged. And for the amount of time Ged has been in our sport [from 1985] it’s amazing that I haven’t heard of a single person saying a bad word about him.
A couple or so years back, Ged Green was involved in a three-way arrangement that included timothy and Niall Squires to promote rec events up and down the country … it took timothy a matter of weeks before Ged immediately broke off all ties with him and refused to have anything more to do with him leaving Niall still in bed with timothy … it wasn’t long before Niall followed Ged’s lead and got the hell out.
I spoke to Ged a few months after he pulled out of that arrangement, I asked him, what the hell timothy had done to pis$ him off so much but all Ged would say was, ‘I could never work with that guy again’ ….
Now, Ged’s departure from this tripartite arrangement rang alarm bells around the industry – timothy had somehow managed to seriously pis$ off one of the most influential and respected figures in our sport.
Along with Steve Baldwin, these are just two of the people in our industry who you really don’t wanna piss off but timothy managed to somehow.
timothy’s history thus far has some common elements running through it – he seems to use people to get to a place he has targeted and as soon as he’s there, he will inevitably betray or end up estranging those very people who have helped him.
timothy’s appealing ………. for money !
The reason I have targeted timothy is known by most ballers but before I get into that – when I first attacked him on p8ntballer.com a few years back, it was with reference to the money he had collected in donations to a monetary appeal called, ‘Support for Soldiers’ he had launched - it was obviously close to the charity name of ‘Help for Heroes’ which was a recognised charity appeal at that time.
The naming of timothy’s appeal was no accident, it was cynically close enough to ‘Help for Heroes’ so as to maximise the donations given.
Thousands of pounds were donated to timothy’s appeal … I wasn’t aware of how long the appeal had been running but I then had a few people from the industry get in touch telling me they were suspicious with the way things were being done with regard to the collection of monies to the appeal fund.
I don’t know if they had any grounds for their suspicions but it certainly warranted a closer look.
I think it worth noting that a lot of people have a problem in airing their suspicions or their opinions in public, such as a forum.
It might be they don’t like getting involved or it’s politically sensitive for whatever reason.
Fortunately, our sport does have a safety-valve whereupon anything and everything can command air-time, that safety-valve is p8ntballer.com.
Most ballers know the gist of what went down with this saga involving barnett but for the sakes of those who don’t, here’s a brief’ish synopsis:-
The Money Go-Round ... Now You See it, Now You Don't, Now You do !!! .......
When you set up a charity’esque appeal for donations from the public, there should be a clear line of accountability of the monies as it’s paid in.
And this accountability and recording of transactions has to be done from day one …
All receiving accounts need to have been set up along with the all the necessary administrative resources to funnel the money through to its particular destination.
This formal accountability is to try and make it hard for people to defraud or embezzle money away from the designated charity or appeal.
And so, transparency is key when it comes to making a public appeal for money … this type of appeal has been used many times for fraudulent purposes and the reason is, there is no actual real-time vetting because it’s not a registered charity... it proves to be an absolute god-send for the criminally-minded.
The temptation of having thousands of pounds in an account that you have total control over is one temptation too much for some individuals, especially when there is no real line of accountability and especially when you are short of dosh.
Knowing timothy was supposed to have this clear line of accountability, I publicly asked him to publish that information either on his website or p8ntballer.com because there had been questions being asked as to what was going on …
Now, if he was up to something then I figured he wouldn’t have the appropriate records available at the time of asking.
I also figured, if he was legit then he would post the appeal details just to let people know everything was above board, common-sense really.
Predictably though, he responded by attacking me, time after time after time – telling everybody I was a mad old man who should be locked up .. blah, blah, blah.
Interestingly though, he was reported as saying, he didn’t wish to publish the accounts because it was me who was asking for them - he felt he wasn’t answerable to me but he'd completely missed the point, he was answerable to the people who had donated, he was answerable to them and to the people the money was supposed to have been going to.
It became painfully obvious, the ‘accounts’ needed to be published to quell any doubts; the fact it was me who was calling for them to be published was an annoyance for him … his little lackeys joined in the attack on me but not one of those silly people realised what he was really doing, or if they did, they elected to ignore it .. he was distracting them by attacking me - hardly a sophisticated ploy but he wasn’t really dealing with the intellectually well-endowed.
He needed people to be distracted from the real question ...’what was happening to the money that was paid in’?
The problem for timothy was, how long could he keep them distracted before some of them ended up suggesting, ‘Just publish them tim, shut that Robbo idiot up for good’ … it was to prove impossible for timothy to do that in an appropriate time-frame…. timothy continually stated he had the accounts but declaring, he didn’t see why he should publish them ... each and every appeal to see them was ignored …
In the end, Ledzy, who was trying to act as an intermediary got involved and told him to publish those accounts because things were looking desperate - all timothy would say was, he didn't see why he should.
'He doesn't see why he should' .... WTF ??????
Ledzy spelled it out easily enough by telling him that he should publish them if indeed he had them but nothing was forthcoming I'm afraid.
Ledzy's advice fell on stony ground ....
Now, I ask you guys, if you had someone going on a public forum and implying you were attempting to defraud people, and you had the information available to prove you weren’t, then I’ll bet my house those accounts would be published in a frikkin heartbeat, if only to have the pleasure of shutting me up and proving me wrong.
Especially since they should have been publicly available anyway, it’s not as if I was asking for anything innapropriate or asking for private information – it was a PUBLIC appeal and as such, the donations should have been made PUBLIC when requested.
He didn’t publish them because he couldn’t publish them and that was because he didn’t have them at that time .….. many weeks later he put up a mickey-mouse set of Excel accounts that could have been drafted in less than an hour by a one-eyed monkey and a keyboard … and even though timothy tried to rally his troops by declaring, ‘the accounts are up’, he had missed the boat by a long way, it was obvious to anyone with an iQ above their shoe size what had actually happened.
So what, what does all this really prove?
I think it’s obvious those accounts weren’t readily available because they hadn’t been compiled, we can assume that much easily enough but why weren’t they compiled??
Was it incompetence or by design?
I’m no Sherlock Holmes and thankfully I don’t have to be in this case but I can reasonably ask the following question:-
Why weren’t there any accounts available when I had first asked for them?
If he was against the principle of posting the accounts just because I had asked for them, then why post them weeks later?
It just didn’t add up… and I doubt the accounts did either.
It was obvious timothy didn’t possess the required accounts but what was he to do?
He did what anyone in his position would do and that was to tread water and wait until it blew over.
Bottom line is this, if I was to hypothetically set out to defraud people by setting up a charity type appeal, then this is how I’d do it.
It’s Fraud 101 …
If I wanted to set out to defraud people who have donated into a charity appeal then I would firstly direct all donated monies into one account that I had control of …. After an appropriate period of time, I would then filter off what I had earmarked for my back-pocket and then allow the remainder of the money to be fed through to the designated beneficiary of any donations.
The person who receives said money has no real idea of how much was donated, all information with respect to that is hypothetically controlled by myself.
In fact, nobody other than the account holder knows how much is paid in ...
The real trick here is this, you allow things to settle down after the main surge of donations has peaked out.
If nobody questions anything, then the dirty deed is done i.e. the money is filtered off and the rest given over to the person who is the beneficiary.
The good thing [if you can call it that] is, if someone does say something and wants to know all the details before I have syphoned it off, then I’d just push all the money through to the beneficiary and this is why there is that period of grace so things settle down before the actual fraud takes place..
It’s a bit like, a guy equips himself with a gun and a mask, he goes into the bank with a view to rob it, all the time nobody realises what he's up to, he can rob the bank as planned but …. If as he makes his way inside the bank, someone was to say,' I think it looks like you are going to rob this bank‘ … you calmly turn back and leave, no harm done, the gun and mask are cast aside leaving him as innocent as the day is long … he has no evidence on him to show his intent, and since the police cannot read his mind, he gets away with it.
The beauty is, ostensibly, he hasn’t done anything wrong because it’s hard to prove conspiracy to rob a bank if all the evidence is gone ….. he’s hardly gonna stick his hands up for that when he knows full well he’s in the clear.
Is this what I think happened with the charity?
Well, put it this way, there was never gonna be any evidence as soon as I asked for the accounts, the plan was fuhk’d from then on.
It was then down to a damage limitation exercise which necessarily included a set of accounts to be posted, albeit waaaaay too late – his feigned indignation regarding my questions and implications sounded hollow to all those who had no affiliation with him and the reasonably minded.
If I hadn’t jumped in and asked for those accounts, what do I think would have happened?
My opinion is obvious …..let’s just say the beneficiary would have had a different amount of money in his account if I hadn’t said a thing.
At least the soldiers got what they deserved …. Didn’t they?
Now, if what I say is true, and thus far it is, then do we really need such an individual involved in our sport?
Someone who would do something like that isn’t gonna be the sort of person we want anywhere near us … or maybe some people might ignore any wrongdoing such as this but I’d like to think the average baller would possess a little self-respect and steer well clear of such a specimen.
People may of course venture he runs good events, well, Hitler ran a good economy, even the most pernicious of individuals may have things they might be good at but you have to make a decision sometimes as to whether or not you wish to continue dealing with such an individual.
I mentioned earlier about naming names with regard to people who timothy has seriously pissed off and in some cases threatened.
In the past, I've never really named names in terms of which people came to me early on with their suspicions and also the people who have been betrayed or threatened by him but I'm now gonna name names because this prihk has been doing his stuff for long enough.
If any of those people I name wish to come forward and deny anything I've said, no problem but they won't ... and they won't because what I've said is the truth as I remember it.
Most ballers know the guys I am gonna talk about here, the vast majority know these people as good guys and they have the player’s interests at heart.
I’ve had personal conversations with the following industry people, all of whom have recounted threats from timothy that went something like, ‘I will destroy you and your business’.
Chris and Jon at Lips:
Neil and Thomas at BZ Paintball
Jim Frensham and Tim Taylor at Warped Paintball
Paul Banks of Tippmann
Simon Cole - Agent for Maxs [Simon's problem is detailed below]
Myself .....
All of those guys above have either been threatened by barnett, in terms of his 'destroy' comments or he has betrayed an agreement he had with them.
Steve Baldwin and Ged Green have already been included in the list anyway.
And now we come to another example of timothy’s ‘business ethics’ – our industry isn’t exactly thriving at the moment and at times like these, trust between the industry is important especially when dealing with large sums of money …
An integral part of all business is 'trust' .... without it, the wheels start to come off.
Problem is, this trust is an emergent property of the individuals involved and only works if everybody pulls their weight but it only takes one to upset the apple-cart.
Simon Cole is a long-term industry guy who I’ve been friends with for over 25 years, he’s well-liked and more importantly, he can be trusted to keep his word.
Simon has been around since year dot and to my knowledge has never had an unpaid bill, he’s never cheated anyone of anything – he’s a stand-up guy.
Simon has had a lot of involvement with timothy and he tried to ignore what was being said because as he told me once, barnnet had never fuhk’d him over [up until then] and so as far as Simon was concerned, timothy was ‘ok’ ..
I’m not suggesting Simon was an advocate for timothy but he did business with him on a regular basis … ‘did’ being the operative word.
At Last - He’s seen the light, he’s finally seen the f’in light .....
About two months ago, my phone bleeped and splashed across the screen was a message from Simon, it read:-
‘You were right all along Pete, my opinion’s changed, I was wrong, the guy turned out to be an old fashioned conman, I feel a bit stupid now’!
That’s as near verbatim as I can remember ....There was a fair bit more to this message but I think it’s better I leave the remainder out but let’s just say it’s a somewhat emotional and descriptive indictment of timothy’s integrity, or in this case, lack of it.
Simon obviously felt a bit stupid because we’d had several conversations between us concerning timothy where he’d tended to give timothy the benefit of the doubt, but now, he’d finally seen the truth, exactly what I said would happen, did.
I should have felt some degree of satisfaction on receiving a message like that but I didn’t, I just felt as though barnett had once again, stiffed another person in our industry.
Simon works as an agent for a guy called Manfred Ulrich - Manfred is a joint owner of the Millennium tournament series, he also owns Maxs Paintball in Germany and is one of the biggest paintball companies in Europe.
Manfred is also one of the richest guys in paintball and certainly no fool ...
Apparently, barnett had ordered some special paint for an event, it was to be clear shell paint with a clear fill because the site where the event was to be staged demanded that all the paint that was to be used, must be clear – the cost for that paint was in the tens of thousands of pounds ...
Manfred wanted payment up front because he had to make a financial commitment to get the paint specially made and so he wasn’t prepared to offer credit on the deal for fear of something going tits up when it comes to paying – it would seem as though Manfred had his doubts about timothy even then.
However, timothy couldn’t or wouldn’t come up with the money up front … it indicated to some that he wasn’t in a position to pay the money up front but for the moment let’s give timothy the benefit of the doubt on this one ... leastwise for the moment.
A subsequent agreement was reached to pay the paint invoice from Maxs immediately after the event.
Unfortunately, timothy didn’t keep his side of the bargain because when the time came, he refused to pay .....
After numerous calls by Simon to try to collect the money, and with a series of excuses given by timothy, Manfred started to get edgy and began to question timothy’s intention to pay.
It was at this point, Simon made a big mistake because he told Manfred that he would guarantee the money if barnett didn't pay.
It was a display of trust on Simon’s part that was doomed to go bandy …
Oh my Simon, such a trusting but foolish soul …..Simon knows full well what I think of timothy [hence the text message above] but he took his own counsel and went ahead with his personal guarantee. …Ooops !!! ..
The paint had been supplied, accepted and subsequently used; timothy had taken all the money from the event but then refused to pay the invoice on the grounds the paint wasn’t dissolving away as fast as he’d expected.
The event had been held in a theme park and was scheduled to open to the public about a month after timothy’s event and so they don’t really like seeing a million splat-marks around their sideshows and rollercoasters - they therefore mandated that the paint should be clear and the venue should be left as they found it.
barnett had to go on clear-up detail ... shame :/
It’s worth pointing out that a week after timothy complained about the paint being allegedly ‘not fit for purpose’, he actually bought more of the offending paint for another event - I’m kinda guessing it was prepaid this time.
The same paint however was also previously used for another event with no issues, so it seemed the only thing that was different in this case were the conditions placed upon timothy by the site owners, one of them being, ‘clean up your **** before you leave’.
barnett's refusal to pay had consequences, especially for Simon.
And for those people who were thinking timothy didn’t have the capital to pay for the paint up front in the first place, they were now grinning like someone who’d just smoked a foot-long spliff.
Simon however, was understandably less inclined to engage his laughing gear.
timothy’s refusal to pay was based upon Simon allegedly guaranteeing the paint would quickly clear by itself but the truth was, Simon never gave a time-limit qualifier.
If timothy had a problem with the paint then why didn’t he bring it up before selling it because he’d already used it anyway?
He had no problem in taking the cash in for it and yet he has the temerity to refuse paying for it … hardly the stuff of honourable business.
Now, the real problem here is, timothy knew damned well Simon had guaranteed the money and as far as timothy was concerned, Simon was now gonna have to pay Manfred.
What a sick fuhk barnett was for even thinking about doing that to so-called 'friend'.
Simon it seemed, was just another patsy that barnett had used and abused ....
But was timothy’s claim justified?
Nope .. no guarantee of a time-line for paint dispersion was given by Simon and so there was no breach of contract/trust.
Manfred though, was not a happy man .. and Manfred, just like Ged Green and Steve Baldwin before him, is not a man you wanna piss off.
timothy wriggled and slithered and finally had to keep his promise to pay.
barnett began to realise the very real effect his refusal to pay Manfred would have within the industry - nobody would ever do business with him again leastwise on any credit terms afforded to him.
barnett had painted himself into a corner and there was only one way out, he had to pay …… but even then, there was a snag.
As I said, the cynics among us would have us believe timothy’s financial liquidity wasn’t as liquid as it should have been and so if he could get out of paying Manfred, it would certainly help refurbish timothy’s bank account.
Hold on a minute though, didn’t I just say that timothy had agreed to pay????
Oh yeah … I did type that ….. well, then surely, it’s all ok isn’t it?
I’m afraid not, timothy might have agreed to pay but he’s only doing it piecemeal, one bit at a time until the invoice is paid off which of course will only be achieved if and when the last instalment is met, and let’s face it, can anyone seriously trust timothy to pay the debt in full anyway?
From what I’ve heard, up until today, the bill still hasn’t been paid.
He’s either so tight for cash that he cannot pay it all off or he’s being an as$hole and deliberately paying bit by bit, my opinion?
It’s both !
To me, it just reeks of that same stench that shrouded timothy and his ‘Support for Soldiers’ appeal ….
Simon Cole is the latest casualty of timothy’s treachery and I’m sure there’ll be more as time goes on.
And so to finish ….. I wanna qualify two last things, the first I mention will maybe leave me open for some criticism because I’d already said the Abbott problem was now finished.
The main reason it went on for so long was not because of what happened in France, it was a comment he made concerning my kids ... I don’t wish to repeat it because I’ve put all that stuff to bed and I’ve moved on but I think I needed to qualify just why the Abbott thing continued waaaay past its ‘sell by date’.
As for why timothy is still in my sights?
It’s not just about his ‘management’ of the donated funds, or indeed what he said about running me out of paintball, or any of the other stuff concerning friends of mine in our industry he’s threatened but ..
When it was all kicking off with timothy re the charity appeal accounts, timothy had wound up his little band of soldier-boys and some were coming on p8ntballer and attacking me.
Their collective iQ failed to nudge into double figures so I wasn’t too concerned but one of them posted on my site, something that was to prove unforgivable; one of timothy’s boys called me a ‘cxnt’ and expressed his wish that I ‘die of cancer’ ... now a comment like that is obviously bang out of order and needs addressing.
Within an hour or so, I had the guy’s address on my phone and I was deliberating whether or not to go visit him .. he was just a silly kid and so any visit was going to mean his mum and dad getting involved if indeed he still lived with them. I could have easily made alternate plans and exacted my displeasure vicariously but I never went down that road either ......
I’m not trying to impress anyone by telling you this, it’s just the way it unfolded that day and hopefully, you may understand just why I reacted that way in a moment.
Thankfully, I didn’t go to see him but the real problem with his post was .. my wife had been diagnosed with skin cancer a few weeks prior to that post going on my forum ... I was not amused.
A few friends such as Ledz and Piper already knew about my wife, Pipes had gotten on the phone to warn me that ‘something’ had been posted on my site. It would seem that post upset quite a few people, and not just me; the guy who posted it was roundly attacked for using the c##t word and the ‘cancer’ comment.
timothy immediately tried to distance himself from his employee’s comment by saying he would sack the guy for posting that message ... but, did timothy keep his word?
No, of course he didn’t .... why not?
Because everything I’ve said about timothy thus far is the truth .... that’s why he didn’t keep his word.
He is to blame for the ‘cancer‘ comment, maybe not 100% but the majority sits firmly in his lap, he stands accountable to me for that … and so does that little turd who did actually post it.
Our sport doesn't need barnett in any way shape or form, in my opinion, he's always one step-away from betraying yet another friend or customer .... I think it's time paintball evacuated its bowels and directed barnett from whence he came.
PS By the way, Wendy, have you received the payment promised by barnett?
