Maven plugin ClassNotFoundException

Maven plugins use their own class loader which does not include the current projects class loader. To get the plugin to reference the class loader,

• include the outputDirectory of the current project into a new URLClassLoader which has the present threads context loader as its parent
  
• include all references to classes loaded at the current project to include this new classloader
  
• do this at the execute() method of the Mojo.

try {

File classesFolder = new File(this.outputDirectory,"classes");

URL[] urls = new URL[]{classesFolder.toURI().toURL()};
URLClassLoader classLoader = new URLClassLoader(urls, (URLClassLoader)Thread
.currentThread().getContextClassLoader());

Thread.currentThread().setContextClassLoader(classLoader);


} catch (MalformedURLException e1) {
System.out.println("[Fatal Error] Unable to create custom classloader for project");
e1.printStackTrace();
System.exit(0);
}

where outputDirectory is
/**
* Location of the file.
* @parameter expression="${project.build.directory}"
* @required
*/
public static File outputDirectory;

and classes within the plugin that that attempts to load classes within the current project should so something like the following

something like this:
theClass = Class.forName(className,true,Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader());