Dave Hester, Newport Consignment Gallery, Dave Hester Auctions
Complaint 31771 Details

Hired Hester to appraise my recently deceased grandmothers estate which was at a storage facility. Hester lied and stated he was licensed, bonded and insured as an appraiser which he is not. Hester arrived at the storage facility and indicated he forgot his "LOOP" and that the lighting was not good enough to make the appraisal at the facility and would have to take the complete estate to his warehouse in Orange to make a proper legal appraisal. He took the property the next day and sold it at his auction house for at total of $5,000 when the property was worth, according to Hester when he first gave me an EDUCATED guess what the estate might be worth, $60,000.00. Hester did not have permission to sell any of the estate let alone did not have a written or verbal contract. He tells the police that we had a verbal contract which placed the complaint into a civil matter rather than criminal. When he auctioned the estate off he apparently had a private auction with just his friends and let his friends buy the property for next to nothing and then Hester would buy back the property from his friends and resell the property at a different auction house in a different county. I filed a civil suit against Hester in the Orange County Superior Courts in California and he indicated that he would file bankruptcy if I were to get a judgement against him which would wipe out my money judgement. Hester also never gave me any of the proceeds that he collected but instead sent me a bill for $5000 for wrapping and packaging up the estate to be taken to his warehouse.