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It has been described as one of the largest deceptions of its type in the Britain.

In all 14 defendants have been found guilty for their role in a multi-million pound scheme to cheat over 3,500 timeshare investors.

The targets were desperate to exit long-standing vacation property deals and went looking for assistance.

Most were in the age range of 60 and 80. In excess of 500 of them surrendered over £10,000, and a single victim transferred in excess of £80,000.

Those affected were faced aggressive sales meetings extending for six hours. They were out of money, owning useless fake "points" and still locked into costly vacation property deals they frequently were unable to use.

The Company Behind the Scam

The business at the core of the scam was Sell My Timeshare (SMT). They accepted clients' cash to fund the owners' luxurious standard of living of prestigious schooling, high-end properties and private jets.

The individual at the helm of the firm, Mark Rowe, was handed a seven and a half year jail time in January for fraudulent conspiracy.

Recently, his partner one of the co-defendants was one of the final three to hear their sentences.

She was given a 24-month deferred imprisonment at Southwark Crown Court after confessing to illegal fund handling.

The outcome represents a extended wait and represents a huge win for the victims who came forward, the police and legal representatives.

The Way the Probe Began

The initial awareness of the company was in the that particular year. I was working in the investigations unit of a media outlet, creating documentary features.

A colleague noted that his mum had assumed the rights of a holiday property in the Spanish coast and, after years of holidays, had begun looking to get out of the deal.

It's worth mentioning how popular timeshares had become with English tourists in the eighties and nineties.

Timeshares permitted individuals to use the same accommodation each season, or swap their time slots with additional holders who had units in other resorts. About 600,000 holiday enthusiasts seized that opportunity.

The initial boom was linked to a numerous accounts about unscrupulous sellers fraudulently marketing units. They appeared frequently on investigative TV programmes.

The typical timeshare contract tied investors in for many years.

At that time, those owners who had used their guaranteed place in the sun for a long time were advancing in years, and a large proportion were looking to say farewell to their holiday properties.

Some had declining mobility and couldn't get to their properties. Some just believed they'd enjoyed sufficient use from them. And a portion had died, in frequent situations passing on their loved ones to inherit the deals - along with their regular contributions and upkeep costs.

The Investigation Unfolds

It was at this point the family member had been placed. She browsed the internet for answers and found the organization, a enterprise whose online presence assured to terminate her deal.

However, having made a payment and booked a meeting with them, her relatives had doubts.

Further research showed many victims saying they had handed over cash and achieved no result out of it. Actually, they had been left out of pocket. Significant sums.

Our team commenced probing what was happening. It quickly became clear that there were some shady characters operating in the vacation property industry.

An attorney had hundreds of individual complaints aiming to litigate against the company.

Reporters contacted clients who had engaged the company and they collectively described identical situations. They thought the firm would acquire their investment off them but when they went to a consultation (for which they submitted funds initially) they were told there was no potential buyers.

In place of that, they were pushed - indeed coerced - to invest additional funds purchasing "the firm's incentive scheme", linked to the business's umbrella group, the parent organization.

What exactly these were was somewhat vague. They appeared to be a type of exchange medium, providing cheaper vacations and amenities and shopping deals.

And they were apparently "transferable with other owners, at a future date.

Investing money immediately would produce an future return that would offset the company's charges and result in the property owner with a gain, freed at last from their pesky agreement.

An unbelievable offer? Indeed, it was.

A 'Deceptive Scam'

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

This is known as a "bait-and-switch."

An operator - in this case the company - "lures the customer by promoting a specific service only to then claim it is unavailable, directing the individual in the direction of an alternative, lesser product or service.

Such practices are unlawful. Possessing all the accounts we had gathered, we made the case to discreetly video one of the firm's consultations.

Such an operation demands dedication, work, and compelling reasons for why this is the only way to collect the evidence needed to demonstrate illegal activity.

Armed with that permission, our limited crew arranged a consultation with one of the company's representatives in Stratford-Upon-Avon.

Pretending to be a member of the public wanting to help his mother released from her timeshare contract|holiday ownership agreement