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It has been described as among the biggest scams of its type in the UK.

A total of 14 people have been sentenced for their involvement in a multi-million pound scheme to cheat over 3,500 timeshare owners.

The affected individuals were desperate to terminate age-old holiday ownership agreements and sought out help.

The majority were aged between 60 and 80. More than 500 of them parted with in excess of £10,000, and one paid more than £80,000.

Those targeted were subjected to intense sales meetings continuing for six hours. They were left out of pocket, holding valueless fake "points" and still bound by high-priced timeshare contracts they could no longer use.

The Business At the Heart of the Scam

The company at the centre of the scheme was Sell My Timeshare (SMT). They collected customers' funds to finance the directors' lavish lifestyle of private schools, high-end properties and exclusive air travel.

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

Recently, his wife another individual was one of the final three to receive sentencing.

She was handed a 24-month suspended jail sentence at the judicial venue after pleading guilty to financial crime.

The outcome represents a extended wait and signifies a significant success for the individuals who testified, the police and legal representatives.

The Way the Probe Started

The first knowledge of SMT came in the that particular year. I was working in the investigations unit of a news organization, creating investigative shows.

A acquaintance pointed out that his mum had inherited the ownership of a timeshare apartment in a European resort and, after years of holidays, had commenced searching to terminate the deal.

It is important to recall how popular timeshares had grown with British holidaymakers in the 1980s and 1990s.

Timeshares enabled families to access the same accommodation each season, or exchange their vacation periods with other owners who had units in different locations. Roughly 600,000 sun-lovers took up that opportunity.

The early surge was accompanied by a lot of reports about rip-off merchants deceptively promoting investments. They appeared frequently on investigative broadcasts.

The standard vacation property deal locked buyers for many years.

In that period, those holders who had used their assigned property in the sunshine for decades were advancing in years, and many were hoping to wave goodbye to their timeshares.

A number had reduced ability to travel and couldn't get to their units. A few just felt they'd enjoyed sufficient use from them. And a portion had died, in frequent situations leaving their heirs to take over the deals - including their regular contributions and service charges.

The Undercover Operation Develops

And that's where the family member had been placed. She looked online for options and discovered the organization, a firm whose digital platform claimed to release her from her contract.

However, having made a payment and scheduled a consultation with them, her loved ones smelled a rat.

Further research revealed many victims saying they had submitted funds and got nothing in return. Actually, they had been left out of pocket. A lot of it.

Our team commenced probing what was occurring. It quickly became clear that there were questionable operators active in the timeshare resale sector.

An attorney had numerous client reports preparing to take action against SMT.

The team interviewed individuals who had engaged the company and they each reported similar experiences. They believed the business would buy their property off them but when they participated in a session (for which they paid up front) they were informed there was no re-sale value.

Rather, they were encouraged - in fact compelled - to invest additional funds acquiring "Monster Rewards", associated with the outfit's parent company, Monster Travel.

What exactly these were was not exactly clear. They seemed similar to a form of credit, offering cheaper vacations and benefits and retail offers.

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

Committing funds at the time would result in an eventual payoff that would pay for the firm's costs and result in the timeshare holder ahead financially, released finally from their troublesome agreement.

An unrealistic promise? Certainly, that proved correct.

A 'Bait-and-Switch Scam'

Assuming these reports were accurate, this was a major deception.

The technique is termed a "misleading sales."

An operator - specifically the company - "lures the customer by marketing a defined offering and then state it cannot be provided, directing the individual towards an alternative, lesser option.

This is against the law. Possessing all the testimony we had assembled, we made the case to secretly film one of the organization's sessions.

This takes dedication, work, and clear arguments for why this is the sole method to obtain the information required to prove wrongdoing.

Armed with that permission, our compact group set up a appointment with one of the company's representatives in Stratford-Upon-Avon.

Posing as a potential client aiming to help his mother out of her timeshare contract|holiday ownership agreement