The $34 man

THE last time Bill Ireland checked, there was only $34.16 in his bank account. That is what he is telling his creditors.

The Sydney entrepreneur who founded a financial services empire and once enjoyed an estimated fortune of $127 million admits he has been through ''some tough times'' recently, but ''things now aren't as bad as they look''.

To those who have recently spotted the 60-year-old behind the wheel of his Porsche or seen his rented Bennelong apartment at Circular Quay, things do not look bad at all.

But to creditors of Mr Ireland, founder of Challenger Financial Services and the Mariner Financial group and a former associate of the Packer family, it appears more grim. His debts range from a $38 million tax bill all the way down to a $101 tab at a charity gardening centre.

When contacted by The Sun-Herald this week, Mr Ireland was not amused: ''Who gives a stuff about me owing $500 to some gardener somewhere? I mean, give me a break.''

A personal insolvency plan filed last month by Mr Ireland shows that his fall from grace is tied to a stunning trail of debt. It reaches from the big end of town, where creditors are clamouring for almost $73 million, right across to the Southern Highlands.

Mr Ireland recently resigned from his $525,000-a-year post at Mariner, which accumulated more than $130 million in losses in his time at the helm. He has put the last two of his six luxury properties up for sale.

From 2008, as pressure piled up on Mr Ireland's business dealings in Sydney, a mounting collection of unpaid bills to tradesmen and businesses around his two Mittagong mansions caused tensions in the town. One dispute ended up in court.

Mr Ireland is upset that people are now asking questions about what went wrong.

''It's just inappropriate and really offensive, quite offensive, and quite simply not Australian that people want to drag over my private affairs,'' he said.

''I'm out of the public life now … Who cares if I owe a few hundred bucks?''

It was in the gardens of Kennerton Green, a seven-hectare Mittagong estate which Mr Ireland and his former wife Marguerite bought for $5.7 million in 2007, that those affairs started to unravel. The couple had plans to build a luxury ''wellness centre'', called Shambala, on the grounds.

But they ran out of money for the project in 2009 and recently put Kennerton Green on the market for $4 million.

The company employed by the Irelands' family trust to build Shambala, Eastwick Country Homes, is still trying to recoup $217,000 for work on the failed venture.

Michael Ryan, who owns Eastwick, said: ''I'd like to think we might get something back down the track. That's probably sheer naivety though. Looking back, it was a very bad period for us - we almost went under.''

Mr Ryan says the Irelands initially warned him they had run out of money and told him to stop work. ''Then Bill said he was in the process of selling some properties in Sydney, so once that happened everything would be OK. On his word, we decided that was fine and we pressed on.''

It is a line that other businesses heard many times. Bowral Co-op, which is pursuing a $20,250 debt for stock feed, and Berrima Removals, a husband-and-wife team still hoping to settle a $4000 bill, are among those who were assured they would get their money as soon as the Irelands sold more property. Bowral Co-op lodged a claim for the money in Parramatta Local Court last year.

Former staff employed at Kennerton Green and Corterre Parc, the Irelands' other Mittagong estate, say they were regular targets of abuse from local business owners who visited to demand their money.

Two tradesmen who asked to remain anonymous claim they are still owed tens of thousands of dollars for work they did on the grounds. The Irelands' trail of debt even extended to the Welby Garden Centre, a charity staffed mostly by intellectually impaired people, who told The Sun-Herald they never received $101 for plants supplied for Shambala.

Mr Ireland would not discuss the details of his debts in the Southern Highlands, but admitted that he owed money to ''maybe half a dozen people down there. I've paid everyone else off in the past year.''

Debts owed by the family trust - Mr Ireland, Marguerite and son Christopher are the only directors; Mr Ireland is the sole shareholder - were not his ''personal obligations'', he said.

In happier times, when he made regular appearances on the BRW Rich List, the former stockbroker owned six properties collectively valued at almost $30 million, and a 34-metre yacht, Mystery, which has been listed for sale at $14 million.

At Challenger, which he founded in 1985, Mr Ireland was in charge of $14 billion of investors' money before he had a falling-out with backers Kerry and James Packer and quit in 2003.

He set up Mariner within two weeks of his departure. Although his personal insolvency plan shows he has not owned shares in Mariner for five years, in his final director's notice, issued on March 4, he disclosed he still held $340,000 worth of stock.

He has sworn off a comeback. ''Why would anyone want to go into public life if they're just going to be attacked? I'm going into retirement and I'm going to sail a boat around the world.''