THE man accused by St Mirren of scuppering a sale of the club has denied he was part of the prospective buying consortium, and claimed that St Mirren directors knew months ago of his prior criminal conviction and turned down his offer to remove himself from the talks.

As revealed in Herald Sport yesterday, Aspiration Holdings Inc (AHI), an English-based consortium, had been in advanced discussions to take over a majority shareholding of the Paisley club and install David Thompson, the former Liverpool midfielder, as manager, believing a deal was not far from being concluded. As part of their proposals, the buyers wanted to build a hotel next to St Mirren Park, and use part of the surrounding site for long-stay parking for passengers flying from neighbouring Glasgow Airport.

St Mirren, however, moved to distance themselves from AHI yesterday after claiming that one of their members is Thaver Mohammed, a 52 year-old Newcastle man sentenced to six months in prison in 2011 after being found guilty of conducting a bogus business deal to help a friend in need.

A source said to be close to the club said: "Stewart [Gilmour, St Mirren chairman] and the rest of the guys on the selling consortium have always said they would only sell to someone who had the best interests of St Mirren at heart.

"But after doing a full background check on this English group, they discovered one of the guys involved had a fraud conviction. It's safe to say they will no longer be going ahead with any discussions. The consortium have been quite clear they will make sure they do their homework on anyone wanting to get involved with the club and that is what they have done in this case."

A distraught and frustrated Mohammed, however, last night insisted his only connection was on a consultancy basis and claimed he would not have been involved in the running of the club once the deal had gone through.

He also maintained that he made the St Mirren directors aware of his previous conviction not long after becoming involved in takeover talks last summer and that he offered to stand aside if his association would prove an impediment to the consortium concluding their takeover.

"I declared everything to the directors," Mohammed told Herald Sport. "I'm not a member of the consortium, I'm not a director or anything like that. I made it clear to Allan [Marshall, the St Mirren director] that I had issues in the past so I can't be associated with a football club. I'm just doing this to help people and earn a commission. At the first meeting the board were aware that I had nothing whatsoever to do with the consortium. I was just an external consultant who was there to facilitate the move forward. At a later meeting Stewart Gilmour walked me around the club and I told him I wouldn't be involved in the running of the club as I probably wouldn't be considered fit and proper for a football club.

"That's all in the past but I've never hidden it. I've been to court, I admitted what I did and I went to jail. Have I to be persecuted for the rest of my life? I have three young kids and a disabled mum to look after. I can't just walk into a job because I have a criminal conviction. I won't lie to anyone about that. I know you have to have protocol but you also have to have your facts right. I disclosed all the information to the club early on.

"I'm at a loss as to why they are now launching an attack on me. Did I do anything wrong? No. Did I lie to anybody? No. Did I try to deceive anybody? No. Did I try to help a club that's about to go into the Championship but has a massive set of loyal supporters? Yes. The deal has now been pulled down and people who have done nothing wrong have been implicated by being potentially involved with a fraudster or whatever they've called me. And there's me trying to earn a living after admitting my guilt and doing my time. I've done nothing wrong. I was just an external consultant. Blaming me for not selling the club is a travesty. History says that because I was convicted before that I must be a liar or a conman. That doesn't make it right."

Mohammed felt frustrated that his past being exposed means a takeover is now unlikely. "I feel sorry for the fans as there was a real opportunity here. There is so much potential in this club to get the right players, coaches, and management, develop everything behind the scenes, and take them into Europe in the next few years. And I think that was all possible."

Jas Narang, who would have led the buying consortium, confirmed Mohammed was not part of his group and expressed his disappointment at this latest development. "Thaver was working with us as a broker, nothing more. Obviously he told us everything that had happened with him but that's all in the past now. It didn't really affect what we were trying to do. Once it got over the line he would have been away. I'm surprised and disappointed his name has come out like this."