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It has been described as a major frauds of its nature in the Britain.

In all 14 individuals have been convicted for their involvement in a multi-million pound scheme to swindle in excess of 3,500 timeshare investors.

The victims were keen to terminate long-standing timeshare contracts and went looking for assistance.

A large number were from 60 and 80. In excess of 500 of them lost more than £10,000, and a single victim handed over more than £80,000.

Those victimized were subjected to aggressive presentations extending for six hours. They were financially worse off, owning valueless fake "points" and still bound by expensive vacation property deals they could no longer use.

The Company At the Heart of the Scam

The business at the core of the scheme was Sell My Timeshare (SMT). They accepted clients' cash to support the directors' lavish standard of living of private schools, luxury homes and personal aircraft.

The man at the head of the organization, the company director, was sentenced to a seven and a half year sentence in January for conspiracy to defraud.

Recently, his wife Nicola was part of the concluding cases to learn their fate.

She received a two-year suspended jail sentence at the London court after admitting financial crime.

The outcome represents a long time coming and represents a major victory for the people who spoke out, the police and prosecutors.

The Way the Inquiry Began

I first heard about the firm emerged during the summer of 2016. I was working in the research department of a broadcasting service, creating current affairs programmes.

A friend mentioned that his parent had inherited the use of a holiday property in Spain and, after long-term use, had started seeking to terminate the agreement.

It is important to recall how widespread vacation properties had evolved with English tourists in the eighties and nineties.

Vacation properties allowed people to occupy the same accommodation annually, or trade their vacation periods with other owners who had apartments in alternative destinations. Roughly 600,000 sun-lovers accepted that chance.

The first timeshare rush was linked to a numerous stories about unscrupulous sellers fraudulently marketing investments. They became a staple on consumer TV programmes.

The common holiday ownership agreement locked buyers for decades.

In that period, those owners who had experienced their guaranteed place in the sun for a long time were getting older, and a large proportion were attempting to wave goodbye to their holiday properties.

Some had reduced ability to travel and were unable to visit their apartments. Some just thought they'd got all they wanted from them. And some had passed away, in many cases passing on their loved ones to take over the deals - plus their yearly fees and maintenance fees.

The Investigation Unfolds

This was the situation the relative had ended up. She looked online for options and discovered the company, a business whose digital platform assured to get her out of her agreement.

But, having made a payment and arranged an appointment with them, her relatives had doubts.

Additional investigation uncovered many victims saying they had submitted funds and achieved no result in return. Indeed, they had been left out of pocket. A lot of it.

The reporting group began investigating what was happening. It was rapidly apparent that there were some shady characters active in the timeshare resale sector.

A legal professional had many grievance cases waiting to sue the organization.

The team interviewed clients who had engaged the company and they collectively described identical situations. They believed the business would purchase their timeshare away from them but when they went to a consultation (for which they paid up front) they were informed there was no re-sale value.

In place of that, they were encouraged - actually pressured - to invest additional funds investing in "the company's points system", associated with the business's umbrella group, the overarching entity.

The nature of these rewards was somewhat vague. They seemed similar to a form of credit, providing cheaper vacations and amenities and shopping deals.

And they were reportedly "tradable" with fellow investors, at a future date.

Paying cash up front now would lead to an future return that would cover SMT's fees and result in the property owner with a gain, released finally from their burdensome agreement.

Too good to be true? Indeed, it was.

A 'Misleading Scam'

If these accounts were correct, this was a large-scale fraud.

This is known as a "misleading sales."

A business - in this case the organization - "lures the consumer by promoting a particular product only to then say that's not available, directing the customer in the direction of a different, lower-quality option.

This is against the law. Possessing all the testimony we had assembled, we presented the rationale to secretly film one of the company's meetings.

This takes time, effort, and clear arguments for why this is the exclusive approach to obtain the data needed to demonstrate illegal activity.

With approval secured, our limited crew arranged a meeting with one of the firm's agents in Stratford-Upon-Avon.

Acting as a member of the public aiming to assist his parent free from her timeshare contract|holiday ownership agreement