This summer, an event was posted to facebook titled “the only aber fresh moving in party”, having previously been named other things including “Aber Freshers 2011″. The event page encourages students to buy a £9 ticket to enable them to collect an “official” t-shirt on the date of the event. which will allegedly allow access to special promotional deals within venues. The event, organised by Aber Fresh Ltd, of Pembrokeshire, claims to be an official event, as well as one run by students.
Similar claims are made by Bangor Fresh Ltd, also of Pembrokeshire. This should not come as a surprise, as both are registered to the same address, and use the exact same branding. Both companies were registered with Companies House this July, alongside a separate company, “Top Banana Entertainment Ltd” (trading as “Top Banana Students” and “Top Banana DJ service and promotions”). Top Banana seems to be the de-facto parent company of Aber Fresh Ltd and Bangor Fresh Ltd.
Despite claiming to be both official, and organised by students at Aberystwyth / Bangor, the event has nothing to do with the respective universities, unions, or student societies, and beyond a referral and volunteer “helper” scheme, seems to have no involvement from current students, with the man behind these companies being, I understand, a Mr James Kershaw of Pembrokeshire. Mr Kershaw identifies himself as Director of Top Banana, as well as Manager of the unrelated “Top Notch Garden Services”, an unregistered organisation providing ground care services in Pembrokeshire.
In challenging the claims made by these companies, I posted the information identifying the 3 companies, and Mr Kershaw, and stated that this meant that any claims that the events are run by aber students were “fabrications”, to the facebook event page, as well as a page operated by the University that advised caution with regard this event. This resulted in Mr Kershaw stating “you’re a dick head.”, before deleting the comments posted to the event page. I am also informed that in a separate comment they claimed I was “jealous” and had “already bought a t-shirt”, more false claims there. I can also disclose that on Tuesday 23rd August, a person claiming to represent these companies made repeated phone calls to a member of staff at Aberystwyth University, threatening unspecified court action against said member of staff unless all comments regarding the company and its event were removed. This despite the information being in the public domain and indeed partially available from the event page itself.
The actions of Aber Fresh Ltd, and Top Banana Entertainment Ltd, suggest that these are companies seeking to profiteer from students, and who are not above intimidatory conduct to try to cover up anything that may jeopardise their profits. I ask that all universities, student unions, and pubs in Wales be aware of the actions of these companies, and to take reasonable precautions to protect the safety and well-being of students and staff members.
Update: following the publicising of this article on facebook, James Kershaw informs me he intends to commence legal proceedings against me. I welcome the move if true, as it shall provide opportunity to expose the facts in court.
This summer, an event was posted to facebook titled “the only aber fresh moving in party”, having previously been named other things including “Aber Freshers 2011″. The event page encourages...
