解决方法:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10482563/aop-java-lang-illegalargumentexception-error-at-0-cant-find-referenced-poi
updating the AspectJ libraries with the maven dependencies from this:
<dependency>
<groupId>org.aspectj</groupId>
<artifactId>aspectjrt</artifactId>
<version>1.5.4</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.aspectj</groupId>
<artifactId>aspectjweaver</artifactId>
<version>1.5.4</version>
</dependency>
to this
<dependency> <groupId>org.aspectj</groupId> <artifactId>aspectjrt</artifactId> <version>1.7.0</version> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.aspectj</groupId> <artifactId>aspectjweaver</artifactId> <version>1.7.0</version> </dependency>