Investors speak out about dealings with Hunter serial inventor David Ashard

It's not just his smooth sales patter. The self-confessed "serial inventor" has an overactive imagination and unwavering self belief to match.

He once convinced a stranger sitting next to him on a business class flight to the US to take the financial plunge on one of his many inventions.

During the flight, Ashard told her how he'd negotiated a multi-million dollar deal with a company linked to Disney and boasted of his appearances as a guest on the ABC's The New Inventors program. Not long after she handed over $50,000. Strangers one minute, best buddies the next.

A shameless self-promoter, Ashard has been winning over investors since the 1990s with his seemingly ingenious ideas and endless talk that a major breakthrough is just around the corner.

His latest "masterpiece", known as Hydraquatic Heating, was launched in May and is being promoted around the world by Ashard as the answer to global warming and reducing heating bills and energy consumption by 90 per cent.

"There is nothing like it in the world, nothing," he recites in a promotional video. "My passion is for helping people, saving money, saving lives, saving our world... it does reduce our carbon footprint by 90 per cent for heating."

During a US media interview in May, Ashard doubled down on the claims. "It's the future of heating because of what it does, to knock down that much energy, nothing has done this before," he said. "We're on new ground... You could leave the heater on all year and it won't cost you much."

The former Lake Macquarie refrigeration mechanic always promises big. The problem is, according to more than a dozen angry investors who spoke to the Newcastle Herald, he doesn't deliver.

This week a Hunter Valley couple, Kim and Scott Waters, represented by barrister Stephen Ryan, won a civil claim against Ashard in Newcastle Local Court after he agreed to repay them $75,000, plus legal costs, from one of his many failed ventures.

The Waters, of Lower Belford, met Ashard more than five years ago through a work friend. The couple took out a loan for $75,000, which they are still paying off, that was to go towards the development of a self-inflatable lifejacket.

"We've been asking to get the money back for years, I'll believe it when it's in our bank account," Mrs Waters said.

"We were told the lifejacket was ready to go when we got involved and there were just some final fees and things that needed paying, then the excuses started rolling in. There was one technical issue after another and it was always someone else's fault."

Since the 1990s, Ashard a former bankrupt, has been involved in 31 companies, taken out dozens of patents and attracted scores of financial backers for a myriad of inventions.

"People take him at face value, he seems genuine," said Lake Macquarie's Tara French, who has known Ashard for more than 40 years.

"What they don't discover until their money is gone is there is not a lot of evidence to substantiate much of what he says."

Like the Disney-linked deal, which he told investors was worth up to $8 million, but never eventuated because he feared losing control of his invention, much of Ashard's business dealings are rich and colourful, but amount to nothing.

His much-hyped self-inflatable lifejacket and inflatable kids' rash vest, were to be the answer to some of the greatest family tragedies around the world, promoted as having the potential to save more than 1 million lives lost to needless drownings each year.

They would save everyone from toddlers to rock fishermen and boaties, their use for water activities limited only by the imagination.

In an email to investors and directors in the months leading up to the planned launch of the lifejacket in 2013, Ashard outlines his strategy.

"What people don't understand is that as an inventor you are the idea and it is not about a piece of plastic or metal that you make, it is about you," he wrote.

The lifejacket and rash shirt ideas have been spruiked under several different names and companies, and involved multiple groups of investors, but after ten years there is nothing much to show for all the fanfare, because the concepts never made it into production.

However, for one group of investors these revolutionary life-saving devices were the sinkhole down which more than $1 million was lost.

All the investors have to show for their money and years waiting for answers are some prototypes that were recovered from a shipping container Ashard left on Ms Water's property at Lower Belford, near Branxton.

Last year the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) deregistered Ashard's lifejacket company ASI360 International, a move it takes when a company ceases trading or has overdue fees.

Ashard told the Newcastle Herald the failed projects were not his fault and he tried as hard as he could to make them work. "I didn't do anything wrong, all I tried to do was try and save lives," he said. "That's all I've tried to do my whole life."

A Newcastle doctor, who along with her partner, invested $80,000 in the children's inflatable rash vest idea said Ashard was skilled at knowing "what buttons to press".

"I am a doctor and I was quite moved by it all," she said. "My father is an engineer and all his story and description of the device was quite convincing. I transplant organs of drowned children all the time. It was a very moving invention and we decided it was a gesture of goodwill."

She said the deal was if there was no progress on the invention after nine years their money would be refunded, but the doctor said Ashard came back several years later chasing more and more money from her partner.

They refused, no money was ever repaid and the invention went nowhere, except to another group of investors.

"He just does it again and again... I just don't want him to get money from people who are more vulnerable," she said. "He needs to stop."

Ashard said that he was no longer accepting money for his inventions after having a breakdown due to the pressure of investors chasing him.

But the Newcastle Herald has seen messages from a woman indicating she was considering giving him $100,000 in July.

A shareholder's register reveals that ASI360 International attracted more than $1 million in funding.

Ashard said he didn't know how much money was lost on the other lifejacket and inflatable rash vest companies, or the numerous inventions before that.

He denied the inventions were "just rebadged" under different company names to attract new groups of investors and said they were "different inventions altogether".

When pushed about how similar some of the inflatable vest ideas appeared, he said "it's all part of the same thing". "I've got nothing," he said. "I've got about $9000 in my super. I work part-time, I haven't spent money on living a brilliant life."

Investor Mick Ferry, who lost $20,000 on the lifejacket, said while Ashard may not have the knack of making his own money from inventions, he sure knew how to spend other people's.

"It eats away at me that he's done it to other people since," he said. "I don't know how he walks the streets. He went on business class flights to the US and other places, it just rubbed salt into the wounds."

Ashard was so confident about the lifejacket invention, even though investors claim they later discovered eerily similar products already existed on the market overseas, that he paid $90,000 for a promotional deal to appear on Channel 9's Saturday program, Morning.

The problem was when viewers called in and purchased the life jackets, they never arrived.

After the embarrassing debacle, which saw only a handful of products sold, viewers demanded their money back and Channel 9 ended up chasing Ashard for refunds.

Different excuses offered to one angry purchaser who complained repeatedly to Channel 9 included that the transport company lost the life vests and Paypal hadn't processed the refunds, all the while the purchaser pointed out that the company's phone number had been disconnected.

Ashard told the Herald that an engineering fault was to blame.

"We went to market. We sold five lifejackets, or maybe it was seven lifejackets, I can't remember," he said. "But the engineers couldn't seal the unit properly so I couldn't sell those to the people."

When asked why he would spend investor funds to go on national television without having a product that worked, Ashard replied: "It was working. It worked beautifully, they [the engineers] just couldn't work out how to seal it," he said. "It wasn't my fault."

No-one, maybe not even Ashard, knows where the boundary lay between fact and fiction.

Profit projections for ASI360 International seen by the Newcastle Herald from Ashard's files reveal return to shareholders after five years of $3 billion from 70 million sales.

There is also an unsigned contract detailing an agreement to pay former marathon swimmer Susie Maroney $36,000 to endorse the product for a year.

Ashard then spent more than $10,000 to get a Perspex tank made for Maroney to "jump in" and demonstrate the product.

Celebrity agent Max Markson confirmed Ashard did court Maroney in September 2013, but a deal was never signed.

But things started to unravel a few weeks later when shareholders met at Redhead Bowling Club and some unsettling questions were raised about the company's progress.

They hadn't seen the product, or the financials and wanted more transparency. Concerns were also raised about a proposed shareholder buy back they feared would give Ashard complete control of the company.

Director and chief executive Scott Follows sent a letter to the board of directors a few days later with a list of concerns.

"The shareholders felt that with advertised release dates already scheduled for next month, they would have seen a demonstration of the finished product including the "state of the art" electronic automation...," he wrote.

"Shareholders are concerned if we have independent testing of the product yet... Shareholders are concerned that ASI360 is not nearly ready to go to market but have already appointed a celebrity ambassador..."

The list of concerns ran for almost three pages.

Ashard responded angrily via email at 1am the next day copying in all shareholders and company executives.

He demanded to know why they were questioning things they "know nothing about" and said "the Iphone didn't throw all their features on the table at day one, they released a new feature every year, marketing think about it!!!"

"I have put every ounce of energy and every dollar I have ever earned into my dream and I am now getting questioned, I am getting pressured and have had the wind knocked out of me, all because some people don't like the way I do things and more to the point that I am not doing it their way," he wrote.

"I am not apologising for getting off my arse and making everything happen, I just don't want any anchors holding me back."

Mrs French, a bookkeeper, said it was then many of the shareholders realised they were in trouble.

She dug in and has continued for years to raise questions about Ashard, his network of companies and inventions, and what happened to all the investor funds.

Her repeated enquiries, culminated in a tirade from Ashard in September 2017

"I have had enough of people casting aspersions on my integrity and calling me a scammer, I have a good product, I have been on national television with this product, I have had our local newsreader Paddy Killmurray [NBN] wear this shirt and put it on the news and tell me how great it is,' he wrote.

"I have credibility, I have a product, I am not a con man and I have not scammed my shareholders so stop this now."

Ashard told the Newcastle Herald he felt "bad" that so many people had lost money, but he didn't know what to do about it. His only hope was if his new heating invention took off, he could raise enough money to pay everyone back.

"It is a lot of money to be lost," he said. "I never spent money on me, it wasn't about me. It was about my inventions."

He said several business class trips to the US and Sweden were to promote the lifejacket and rash vest ideas and visit factories.

While he was working on the safety vest products he didn't have a job, but said he worked full-time on the inventions and was paid with investor funds.

He is still talking up missed opportunities, saddled with regret that if things went the other way the lifejacket would have gone global.

"We had a company coming out from England... I got the engineers to make the new product, this was at the end, and they were paid to make it," he said.

"And what happened, at the end of the day, it was two days or the day before these people were coming out from England and we were supposed to show them the new design, this is the lifejacket, and the engineer gave me a piece of crap. It wasn't even anything. I had the guy coming the next day. So we had to can that. And that was, it looked like it was going to go."

Aged 61, the tall, smooth-talking Ashard is a rather improbably entrepreneur who lays claim to an impressive CV.

His "humble nature" and national and international media exposure give him credibility. His two appearances on the ABC's The New Inventors program solidify his reputation as an innovator.

One of his former business associates, who has known Ashard for close to 40 years, said "the great pretender could make a shit sandwich sound good".

The associate, who requested anonymity, recalled how Ashard had a way of making people feel sorry for him.

He described Ashard as a "Walter Mitty-type figure with delusions" that led him to dream up countless oddball get-rich-quick schemes.

"He always has a great business spiel about the product, whatever it is, he makes it sound so good and he just needs your help to make it happen," he said.

"He finds out about someone and what they like and then talks to them about their interests. He has a charisma that gets people in. He's very, very good at getting people's confidence."

Another Newcastle businessman who invested $40,000 in one of Ashard's door hinge projects and a further $40,000 in labour described the inventor's rhetoric as like "verbal diarrhoea".

"He comes up with what looks like a wonderful idea and runs with it until it gets too hard and moves onto another one," he said.

"He's never gotten anything over the finish line. He's a big talker, boasting about how many orders he has got and people wanting to buy in for millions."

Years after the pair parted ways, he said Ashard came back into his workshop seeking help with the lifejacket invention.

"He told me Justin Bieber was keen on it and was going to push it, I mean come on did it really get to that level," he said.

"He just comes up with all this stuff and it's hot air."

Ashard confirmed that he has a database with hundreds of inventions, has taken money from "60 or 70 investors" over decades, and agreed none of his inventions got off the ground.

"I'm not a good businessman, I'm a good inventor and I should have stuck to that," he said. "I can't run a company, I don't know how to run a company. I really can't, I just don't know what to do."

Many of the investors who were sucked in by Ashard's confidence and belief in his 'state of the art' inventions, sourced the money they invested from their savings, mortgages or personal loans.

Investor Graham Settree, 55, used his own personal redraw account to loan $60,000 to invest in ASI360 International.

Mr Settree, who has been in the surf lifesaving for 20 years, said he thought the concept sounded unreal and the lifejackets seemed extremely promising.

"David, knowing my background, he was me telling it would be great for me to tell some stories and back up, maybe get Surf Life Saving Australia on board," he said.

"He sold us, he was very good at misleading everyone."

Mr Settree describes Ashard as "very convincing until he wouldn't return my phone call".

Central Coast business owner and single mother, Kerry Redup, 65, lost $60,000 after deciding to invest.

"My partner and business partner, we had just split up... and I was just terrified of not being able to continue in the business, to not have a job or income, and I wanted to become financially stable for me and my son," she said.

"I was in quite a vulnerable stage of my life."

Ms Redup said looking back on it now, she doubts whether she would do something like that.

"But I guess, I would never do that to somebody. So, I just imagined that no one would do that to you," she said.

"I was a stranger and some of the people were very close friends, which makes it even worse."

Ms Redup said she thinks it's disgusting that somebody can take money from people and then just cut them off.

"He doesn't care about anybody but himself, and just continues to do it over and over and over again," she said.

Ashard's inventions range from the seemingly brilliant, the lifejacket that senses water depth and inflates, to the ridiculous like the spray on condom and hover shoes.

Port Macquarie toolmaker Richard Mainey said the pivot door hinge that swings both ways fell into the first category - the fruits of this Ashard idea he could envisage being used in nursing homes and for the disabled across the globe.

"It's a great idea for people caught in a toilet after they've had a medical emergency like a heart attack or for people in wheelchairs," he said. "It could really help people, it's a shame it never got off the ground."

Mr Mainey's Port Plastics and Tooling did a "great deal of work" for several years making the hinge from about 2006 and the father of seven also invested.

"He's good at squeezing money out of people," he said. "In the end I think he found it easier to sell the idea and keep moving on, rather than selling the products. He doesn't carry out what he says he's going to do and he walks away and starts again and suddenly becomes very hard to find."

Ashard told the Newcastle Herald he wasn't avoiding investors when things went bad and he went to ground.

"My biggest problem in life is when I have a problem with an invention I go into my shell and I try and solve the problem," he said. "I don't communicate with people and that's where I fall down."

Know more? Donna.page@newcastleherald.com.au

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