🔗 Share this article

Authorities have called it as one of the largest frauds of its type in the UK.

In all 14 people have been convicted for their part in a £28 million conspiracy to defraud over 3,500 timeshare investors.

The victims were desperate to exit decades-old holiday ownership agreements and tried to find assistance.

The majority were aged between 60 and 80. Over 500 of them lost in excess of £10,000, and a single victim handed over over £80,000.

Those victimized were exposed to high-pressure presentations extending for six hours. They were financially worse off, owning valueless fake "credits" and remained trapped in expensive vacation property deals they often use.

The Business Behind the Deception

The business at the core of the scam was Sell My Timeshare (SMT). They took people's money to fund the owners' lavish lifestyle of prestigious schooling, high-end properties and private jets.

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

On Friday, his wife 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 admitting illegal fund handling.

This has been a extended wait and signifies a huge win for the people who spoke out, the authorities and legal representatives.

The Way the Investigation Began

I first heard about the company came in the mid-2016. I was working in the research department of a broadcasting service, producing current affairs features.

A colleague mentioned that his mother had taken over the use of a timeshare apartment in a European resort and, after decades of vacations, had commenced searching to terminate the contract.

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

Vacation properties allowed individuals to use the identical property each season, or trade their vacation periods with additional holders who had properties in different locations. Approximately 600,000 sun-lovers accepted that option.

The early surge was accompanied by a lot of accounts about unscrupulous sellers fraudulently marketing investments. They became a staple on investigative broadcasts.

The standard vacation property deal tied investors in for long periods.

At that time, those investors who had used their assigned property in the sun for decades were ageing, and many were hoping to wave goodbye to their holiday properties.

Several had reduced ability to travel and found it difficult to access their units. A few just thought they'd got all they wanted from them. And a portion had passed away, in numerous instances bequeathing their family members to inherit the agreements - plus their yearly fees and maintenance fees.

The Investigation Develops

It was at this point the friend's mum had been placed. She browsed the internet for answers and discovered the organization, a business whose digital platform assured to terminate her contract.

However, having paid a fee and scheduled a consultation with them, her family became suspicious.

Additional investigation revealed hundreds of people reporting they had submitted funds and achieved no result out of it. In fact, they had been left out of pocket. Significant sums.

Our team commenced probing what was occurring. It quickly became clear that there were some shady characters operating in the holiday ownership market.

A legal professional had numerous client reports aiming to litigate against SMT.

We spoke to people who had used the firm and they collectively described identical situations. They believed the business would acquire their investment off them but when they attended a meeting (for which they made an advance payment) they were advised there was no re-sale value.

Instead, they were persuaded - actually coerced - to commit further cash purchasing "the company's points system", linked to the outfit's parent company, the overarching entity.

What exactly these were was rather ambiguous. They seemed similar to a form of credit, offering discount travel and benefits and retail offers.

And they were reportedly "exchangeable with fellow investors, eventually.

Investing money up front now would result in an eventual payoff that would offset the firm's costs and leave the investor with a gain, freed at last from their burdensome deal.

An unbelievable offer? Indeed, it was.

A 'Deceptive Scheme'

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 - "baits" the client by promoting a specific service only to then state it cannot be provided, directing the customer towards a different, lower-quality product or service.

That's illegal. Possessing all the evidence we had assembled, we made the case to discreetly video one of the firm's consultations.

This takes commitment, energy, and compelling reasons for why this is the only way to gather the data needed to prove wrongdoing.

With approval secured, our small team organized a meeting with one of the firm's agents in Stratford-Upon-Avon.

Acting as a member of the public hoping to help his mother released from her timeshare contract|holiday ownership agreement