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It has been described as a major scams of its type in the UK.

Altogether 14 people have been found guilty for their involvement in a £28m scheme to swindle over 3,500 holiday ownership investors.

The victims were desperate to get out of long-standing timeshare contracts and tried to find assistance.

The majority were aged between 60 and 80. In excess of 500 of them lost more than £10,000, and one individual paid more than £80,000.

Those targeted were exposed to intense consultations extending for six hours. They were out of money, holding worthless fake "rewards" and continued to be trapped in expensive timeshare contracts they often use.

The Business Behind the Fraud

The business at the centre of the scheme was Sell My Timeshare (SMT). They collected clients' cash to fund the directors' luxurious lifestyle of private schools, high-end properties and personal aircraft.

The leader at the head of the firm, the company director, was handed a seven-and-half year sentence in January for fraudulent conspiracy.

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

She was handed a two-year long deferred imprisonment at the London court after confessing to financial crime.

It has been a long time coming and represents a significant success for the individuals who testified, the police and the Crown.

The Way the Inquiry Was Initiated

The initial awareness of the firm emerged during the mid-2016. I was working in the reporting team of a broadcasting service, producing current affairs features.

A colleague noted that his mum had assumed the ownership of a vacation unit in a European resort and, after long-term use, had started seeking to exit the deal.

It is important to recall how common holiday ownership had grown with English tourists in the 1980s and 1990s.

Holiday ownership enabled people to use the equivalent unit each season, or trade their vacation periods with other owners who had properties in different locations. Roughly 600,000 holiday enthusiasts accepted that option.

The early surge was linked to a lot of stories about rip-off merchants fraudulently marketing units. They appeared frequently on investigative shows.

The common timeshare contract bound owners for decades.

In that period, those investors who had enjoyed their regular accommodation in the sunshine for a long time were advancing in years, and a significant number were looking to end their association to their vacation investments.

Some had declining mobility and found it difficult to access their properties. Some just thought they'd achieved their goals from them. And others had died, in numerous instances bequeathing their loved ones to take over the deals - plus their regular contributions and upkeep costs.

The Undercover Operation Develops

And that's where the family member had found herself. She looked online for options and found the organization, a firm whose website claimed to terminate her contract.

However, having paid a fee and arranged an appointment with them, her loved ones became suspicious.

Further research showed hundreds of people saying they had paid money and got nothing in return. Actually, they had lost money. Substantial amounts.

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

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

We spoke to clients who had used the firm and they all told the same story. They believed the business would acquire their investment away from them but when they attended a meeting (for which they paid up front) they were advised there was no market for their property.

Instead, they were persuaded - actually compelled - to commit further cash acquiring "the firm's incentive scheme", associated with the business's umbrella group, Monster Travel.

The nature of these rewards was rather ambiguous. They sounded like a kind of currency, providing reduced-price holidays and benefits and retail offers.

And they were reportedly "transferable with additional holders, some time down the line.

Paying cash at the time would lead to an eventual payoff that would offset the firm's costs and allow the property owner with a gain, freed at last from their troublesome agreement.

Too good to be true? Well, yes.

A 'Bait-and-Switch Scam'

Assuming these reports were true, this was a large-scale fraud.

It's what is called a "deceptive marketing."

A business - here the organization - "attracts the client by promoting a specific service but then to say that's not available, directing the individual towards an alternative, lesser option.

That's illegal. Equipped with all the evidence we had collected, we argued to secretly film one of the company's meetings.

The process requires commitment, energy, and compelling reasons for why this is the only way to collect the data needed to prove wrongdoing.

Armed with that permission, our limited crew set up a consultation with one of the organization's staff in the English town.

Posing as a ordinary individual wanting to help his mother released from her timeshare contract|holiday ownership agreement