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It has been described as one of the largest frauds of its kind in the United Kingdom.

A total of 14 individuals have been convicted for their role in a £28m plot to defraud more than 3,500 timeshare holders.

The targets were eager to get out of age-old vacation property deals and tried to find support.

A large number were from 60 and 80. In excess of 500 of them parted with in excess of £10,000, and one individual handed over in excess of £80,000.

Those targeted were subjected to high-pressure consultations extending for six hours. They were financially worse off, owning worthless fake "points" and remained trapped in high-priced vacation property deals they could no longer use.

The Business Behind the Deception

The firm at the core of the scam was Sell My Timeshare (SMT). They collected people's money to support the owners' lavish lifestyle of prestigious schooling, millionaire mansions and personal aircraft.

The individual at the head of the company, the company director, was sentenced to a seven and a half year jail time in January for conspiracy to defraud.

Recently, his wife another individual was part of the concluding cases to receive sentencing.

She was handed a two-year long suspended jail sentence at the judicial venue after pleading guilty to illegal fund handling.

It has been a lengthy process and represents a huge win for the victims who came forward, the police and prosecutors.

How the Inquiry Began

I first heard about SMT came in the mid-2016. I was working in the reporting team of a news organization, creating investigative shows.

A friend mentioned that his mother had inherited the ownership of a holiday property in a European resort and, after decades of vacations, had begun looking to get out of the deal.

It should be noted how widespread holiday ownership had become with English tourists in the last decades of the 20th century.

Timeshares permitted people to access the same accommodation annually, or swap their time slots with additional holders who had apartments in other resorts. Roughly 600,000 sun-lovers accepted that opportunity.

The initial boom was paired with a numerous reports about unscrupulous sellers deceptively promoting investments. They became a staple on investigative shows.

The common timeshare contract bound owners for many years.

In that period, those investors who had experienced their assigned property in the resort for decades were advancing in years, and a large proportion were hoping to wave goodbye to their holiday properties.

Several had reduced ability to travel and were unable to visit their properties. A few just felt they'd enjoyed sufficient use from them. And others had passed away, in frequent situations passing on their family members to inherit the contracts - including their regular contributions and upkeep costs.

The Covert Probe Progresses

This was the situation the friend's mum had ended up. She searched the web for solutions and came across the company, a firm whose online presence promised to release her from her agreement.

However, having submitted funds and scheduled a consultation with them, her relatives had doubts.

Subsequent checking revealed many victims reporting they had paid money and received no benefit from the service. In fact, they had lost money. Significant sums.

The investigative unit started looking into what was going on. It was rapidly apparent that there were dubious individuals active in the timeshare resale sector.

An attorney had numerous client reports waiting to sue the organization.

The team interviewed people who had dealt with the organization and they collectively described identical situations. They assumed the company would purchase their timeshare from them but when they attended a meeting (for which they paid up front) they were informed there was no re-sale value.

Instead, they were persuaded - in fact pressured - to spend more money acquiring "the company's points system", linked to the business's umbrella group, the overarching entity.

The nature of these rewards was somewhat vague. They appeared to be a kind of currency, giving access to discount travel and benefits and retail offers.

And they were apparently "exchangeable with other owners, eventually.

Committing funds at the time would produce an long-term benefit that would offset the firm's costs and result in the property owner ahead financially, freed at last from their burdensome deal.

An unbelievable offer? Certainly, that proved correct.

A 'Misleading Tactic'

Based on these descriptions were correct, this was a massive scam.

The technique is termed a "bait-and-switch."

Someone - here the company - "baits" the client by advertising a defined offering and then say that's not available, steering the client in the direction of another, inferior product or service.

Such practices are unlawful. Possessing all the testimony we had collected, we presented the rationale to discreetly video one of the company's meetings.

This takes commitment, energy, and compelling reasons for why this is the exclusive approach to obtain the evidence required to prove wrongdoing.

With approval secured, our limited crew organized a consultation with one of the organization's staff in Stratford-Upon-Avon.

Posing as a member of the public hoping to assist his parent released from her timeshare contract|holiday ownership agreement