🔗 Share this article

Prosecutors have labeled it as among the biggest scams of its type in the UK.

Altogether 14 people have been convicted for their involvement in a £28m conspiracy to defraud over 3,500 holiday ownership holders.

The victims were eager to terminate age-old vacation property deals and sought out help.

Most were from 60 and 80. In excess of 500 of them lost in excess of £10,000, and a single victim transferred in excess of £80,000.

Those victimized were subjected to high-pressure sales meetings lasting up to six hours. They were financially worse off, possessing worthless fake "rewards" and remained bound by expensive vacation property deals they could no longer use.

The Company Behind the Deception

The firm at the centre of the scheme was Sell My Timeshare (SMT). They accepted customers' funds to finance the directors' lavish lifestyle of exclusive education, high-end properties and private jets.

The leader at the helm of the firm, the company director, was sentenced to a seven and a half year prison term in January for conspiracy to defraud.

In the latest development, his spouse one of the co-defendants was one of the final three to learn their fate.

She was given a two-year suspended prison term at Southwark Crown Court after pleading guilty to money laundering.

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

The Way the Investigation Began

The initial awareness of the company emerged during the summer of 2016. The role involved in the research department of a news organization, creating current affairs programmes.

A friend pointed out that his parent had inherited the use of a timeshare apartment in a European resort and, after long-term use, had started seeking to get out of the deal.

It's worth mentioning how widespread timeshares had grown with UK travelers in the eighties and nineties.

Vacation properties enabled families to use the same accommodation each season, or exchange their weeks with fellow investors who had apartments in alternative destinations. About 600,000 sun-lovers accepted that opportunity.

The initial boom was accompanied by a numerous reports about unscrupulous sellers mis-selling properties. They were regularly featured on consumer shows.

The typical timeshare contract tied investors in for many years.

In that period, those holders who had experienced their regular accommodation in the resort for decades were advancing in years, and a significant number were looking to wave goodbye to their timeshares.

Several had declining mobility and were unable to visit their units. A few just thought they'd enjoyed sufficient use from them. And some had died, in numerous instances leaving their heirs to assume the agreements - plus their regular contributions and maintenance fees.

The Covert Probe Unfolds

It was at this point the friend's mum had ended up. She searched the web for solutions and discovered the organization, a business whose digital platform promised to release her from her contract.

Yet, having paid a fee and arranged an appointment with them, her relatives had doubts.

Additional investigation revealed many victims reporting they had submitted funds and got nothing in return. Indeed, they had suffered financially. Significant sums.

The investigative unit began investigating what was occurring. It soon emerged that there were questionable operators active in the holiday ownership market.

A legal professional had numerous client reports preparing to take action against the organization.

The team interviewed clients who had used the firm and they all told the same story. They assumed the company would buy their property off them but when they attended a meeting (for which they submitted funds initially) they were informed there was no potential buyers.

Rather, they were pushed - actually coerced - to invest additional funds investing in "the company's points system", linked to the organization's holding firm, the overarching entity.

What exactly these were was rather ambiguous. They seemed similar to a type of exchange medium, giving access to cheaper vacations and amenities and shopping deals.

And they were seemingly "exchangeable with fellow investors, some time down the line.

Committing funds at the time would produce an long-term benefit that would cover the company's charges and allow the property owner ahead financially, freed at last from their pesky contract.

Too good to be true? Well, yes.

A 'Bait-and-Switch Scheme'

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

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

Someone - here the company - "baits" the customer by marketing a specific service only to then state it cannot be provided, directing the individual to an alternative, lesser product or service.

That's illegal. Equipped with all the accounts we had assembled, we argued to covertly record one of the firm's consultations.

The process requires time, effort, and strong justifications for why this is the exclusive approach to obtain the data required to prove wrongdoing.

With approval secured, our small team arranged a consultation with one of the company's representatives in the English town.

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