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It has been described as one of the largest scams of its type in the UK.

A total of 14 people have been sentenced for their part in a £28 million conspiracy to cheat in excess of 3,500 timeshare owners.

The targets were desperate to exit age-old holiday ownership agreements and tried to find support.

The majority were aged between 60 and 80. In excess of 500 of them lost over £10,000, and a single victim paid more than £80,000.

Those victimized were exposed to intense sales meetings continuing for six hours. They were left out of pocket, holding worthless fake "credits" and remained locked into high-priced vacation property deals they could no longer use.

The Firm Behind the Scam

The company at the core of the scheme was Sell My Timeshare (SMT). They accepted clients' cash to support the proprietors' lavish lifestyle of exclusive education, luxury homes and private jets.

The leader at the head of the company, the company director, was handed a 90-month sentence in January for conspiracy to defraud.

Recently, his spouse one of the co-defendants was among the last group to receive sentencing.

She received a two-year long suspended jail sentence at Southwark Crown Court after confessing to financial crime.

The outcome represents a lengthy process and signifies a huge win for the victims who came forward, the authorities and legal representatives.

The Way the Inquiry Began

I first heard about the firm came in the that particular year. I was working in the investigations unit of a news organization, producing documentary programmes.

A colleague mentioned that his mother had assumed the rights of a holiday property in Spain and, after years of holidays, had started seeking to terminate the agreement.

It should be noted how common holiday ownership had grown with UK travelers in the last decades of the 20th century.

Vacation properties enabled families to access the same accommodation every year, or exchange their vacation periods with fellow investors who had properties in other resorts. Roughly 600,000 sun-lovers seized that option.

The initial boom was paired with a numerous stories about unscrupulous sellers fraudulently marketing units. They appeared frequently on consumer shows.

The common timeshare contract bound owners for long periods.

At that time, those holders who had experienced their assigned property in the sunshine for decades were getting older, and many were hoping to say farewell to their holiday properties.

Several had declining mobility and were unable to visit their units. A few just believed they'd achieved their goals from them. And some had passed away, in numerous instances bequeathing their family members to take over the agreements - along with their yearly fees and maintenance fees.

The Undercover Operation Develops

And that's where the relative had been placed. She searched the web for solutions and came across SMT, a business whose website claimed to release her from her agreement.

But, having submitted funds and arranged an appointment with them, her family smelled a rat.

Subsequent checking showed hundreds of people reporting they had paid money and got nothing from the service. Actually, they had lost money. A lot of it.

The investigative unit commenced probing what was going on. It quickly became clear that there were dubious individuals operating in the holiday ownership market.

One lawyer had numerous client reports aiming to litigate against the organization.

We spoke to individuals who had used the firm and they each reported similar experiences. They thought the business would buy their property off them but when they participated in a session (for which they submitted funds initially) they were informed there was no market for their property.

In place of that, they were pushed - actually coerced - to spend more money investing in "the company's points system", linked to the outfit's parent company, Monster Travel.

What exactly these were was rather ambiguous. They appeared to be a form of credit, giving access to cheaper vacations and benefits and retail offers.

And they were reportedly "transferable with other owners, some time down the line.

Paying cash immediately would lead to an future return that would offset SMT's fees and leave the timeshare holder in profit, liberated eventually from their pesky agreement.

An unbelievable offer? Certainly, that proved correct.

A 'Bait-and-Switch Scheme'

If these accounts were true, this was a massive scam.

This is known as a "deceptive marketing."

An operator - specifically the organization - "lures the consumer by promoting a particular product but then to claim it is unavailable, directing the individual to another, inferior option.

That's illegal. Equipped with all the testimony we had assembled, we made the case to secretly film one of the firm's consultations.

Such an operation demands commitment, energy, and clear arguments for why this is the sole method to obtain the information needed to confirm deceptive practices.

With approval secured, our small team arranged a consultation with one of the organization's staff in Stratford-Upon-Avon.

Pretending to be a ordinary individual hoping to assist his parent out of her timeshare contract|holiday ownership agreement