Tara French believes Newcastle inventor David Ashard took advantage of his 40-year friendship with her late husband Harold to find investors

She has known David Ashard since he was 15 years old.

The self-styled inventor grew up down the road from where Tara's late husband, Harold, bought his first house in Gateshead West in 1976.

Over the years, Harold and Ashard became mates.

When Tara went into labour with her first daughter and Harold was at work, Ashard drove her to hospital.

Harold was the best man at Ashard's second wedding and whenever he needed a place to stay, Harold and Tara took him in.

In 2009, when Ashard was desperate for a location for ABC's The New Inventors program to film a segment on one of his inventions, the finger hinge, Harold and Tara opened their home.

The men were friends for more than 40 years.

So it was no surprise that when Ashard told his mate around 2011 that his latest invention, a lifejacket that inflates when it senses water at depth, was on the verge of success, Harold believed him.

Ashard convinced Harold he just needed some investors to help him get the project across the line.

He promised that those who helped would be handsomely compensated for their investment while doing their part to save lives.

Harold invested his and Tara's money, $40,000, he got his sister in for $60,000 and good friends and workmates also invested more than $100,000; finally Harold agreed to being a director of the company known as ASI360 International.

"He took advantage of Harold's generosity and their friendship," Tara said.

"Whatever we did for him over the years, it meant nothing. Harold ran his own business for years, he was a clever guy, but he was used."

Most people who have met Ashard describe him as a compelling character.

More than one former associate told of losing money, as well as losing friends, after they introduced people to Ashard and he convinced them to invest in one of his inventions.

Investors, business associates and former friends alike said they found him plausible, convincing and likeable.

All sides agree that many of the ideas tossed up by Ashard had merit, but despite what he promoted, they went nowhere.

"He's the kind of guy that will be lining up to order dinner and start chatting to another person in the line and the next thing it's like they are old friends," Tara said.

"He's got the gift of the gab and can read people, it's how he gets people in."

The hype from Ashard for years, at closed-door presentations to friends, friends of friends, investors and in media interviews, was unrelenting about the lifejacket as more than $1 million was drummed up in investment capital for ASI360 International alone.

Company meeting minutes and media interviews tell the fairy tale story of the invention.

Ashard told the Newcastle Herald in 2014 he was inspired to build the vest after he saw a young couple on the news who had just lost a child in a pool drowning.

''Being an inventor it triggered something in me and I thought, 'I'm going to try and help','' he said.

But Ashard was less keen to highlight the hurdles the invention faced, including the fact that there were already similar products on the market overseas and he was struggling to get his version to work.

It began to unravel in November 2013, when Ashard was unable to present the "state of the art" lifejacket investors and directors were expecting.

But there was always an excuse.

Tara said his excuses worked, for a time, because people, including Harold, trusted him.

Harold had been bailing Ashard out of trouble since he was a teenager, surely he wouldn't be stringing him along.

"It wasn't just David going and selling the idea, he used Harold to do it too," Tara said.

"People believed Harold, they trusted him. When it all started to go bad it weighed on Harold, he was embarrassed and he felt terribly responsible."

Harold's sister, who asked not to be named, lost $60,000 on the lifejacket scheme, said the whole ordeal impacted their relationship.

She said she stopped asking Harold about the venture because she could see he didn't know what to say and they were talking less and less.

"Harold was like a father figure to me, he always looked after me and always had my best interests at heart," she said.

"He truly believed what Ashard told him, or he would never have gotten me involved. He was the loveliest, most loyal, most hard working bloke you could meet."

She said Ashard knew Harold had a wide network of friends to tap into.

The thing that hurt the most was that Ashard moved onto a new group of investors after Harold's death in 2016.

Ashard told the Newcastle Herald Harold was his "best mate".

Asked how he felt about getting Harold and his family and friends involved when they all lost their money, Ashard replied: "I don't know. It wasn't about that. It was about this product. It is a good product. It was going to work."

Warners Bay builder Mick Ferry said Ashard would talk about the lifejacket like it was "ready to go".

Mick lost $20,000 he invested in the lifejacket business, his brother lost $20,000 and brother-in-law another $20,000.

They invested after hearing about the invention from Harold, who worked as a contractor for their building company.

"Harold was the most genuine guy you could meet, he was a contractor and a friend," Mick said.

"He felt like he let everyone down, he felt absolutely terrible about it all."

Mick said he was speaking out to make sure other people didn't fall into the same trap of giving Ashard money.

"It's a blackhole and I just would hate for anyone else to get involved," he said.

It was after Harold died that Tara began tracing Ashard's past and previous business ventures.

"With Harold gone I felt responsible and I wanted to have answers when people asked me what was happening," she said.

She started joining the dots looking behind the scenes of ASI360 International and other companies linked to Ashard to figure out what went wrong.

Within the diverse array of more than 30 companies and the scores of people she spoke to over more than four years, who had either invested money or expertise in Ashard's schemes dating back to the 1990s, there was a familiar story.

None of it went well and everyone lost money.

There were multiple different companies, linked to multiple different investor groups, associated with multiple different versions of, at times, very similar products.

There was ASI360 International, RippSaver, Float Industries, Duo Wonder Ring and Inflate 2 Live linked to lifejacket or inflatable safety vest inventions.

"It appeared like he was just rebadging the ideas, or versions of the ideas, and was starting again with money from different investors," Tara said.

"Then I decided to track backwards and I found all the door companies. I was going, 'Oh, my God, oh my God, what is going on here?'."

There were up to ten companies linked to different investor groups regarding Ashard's previous door and hinge inventions.

"Burn someone for $15,000, then burn someone for $30,000 and off we go again," she said.

"Moving on and burning the next group of people. It was shocking and now he's onto a new invention to do with heating, it never stops."

Mr Ferry said "one of the most amazing things" was Ashard was still operating in the Hunter.

"Over the time I might have saved about a dozen people," he said.

"Anyone who told me they were thinking of investing, I put an end to it right away.

"I've been in business for more than 30 years and he had me fooled and he had a hell of a lot of others fooled - he's good."

A constant in Ashard's kaleidoscopic career is that he always predicts right to the end, when the rainbow hits the pot of gold.

Mr Ferry said there was "nothing fancy" about Ashard, but he was extremely convincing.

"He says he's invested every cent he has and there is no more money to take the invention forward," he said.

"There's troubles with patents and lawyers and he just needs to get over the last hurdle."

But the self-inflating lifejacket, like Ashard's many other inventions over decades, never made it anywhere near the finish line.

"The world stage, the world envy, and he always needs someone's money to get there," Tara said.

"It saddens me to believe that of all the times Harold and myself helped Ashard out financially and emotionally - there was no depth in his friendship to either of us - other than his interest in the depth of our pockets."

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

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