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Prosecutors have labeled it as a major frauds of its nature in the United Kingdom.

Altogether 14 individuals have been found guilty for their involvement in a £28 million scheme to defraud more than 3,500 vacation property owners.

The affected individuals were eager to get out of age-old timeshare contracts and went looking for help.

A large number were in the age range of 60 and 80. More than 500 of them lost more than £10,000, and one paid over £80,000.

Those affected were exposed to aggressive sales meetings extending for six hours. They were left out of pocket, holding worthless fake "points" and still bound by expensive holiday ownership agreements they could no longer use.

The Business Behind the Fraud

The business at the centre of the scheme was Sell My Timeshare (SMT). They collected people's money to fund the proprietors' lavish standard of living of private schools, millionaire mansions and private jets.

The leader at the top of the firm, the company director, was handed a seven and a half year sentence in January for deceptive scheme.

In the latest development, his partner Nicola was part of the concluding cases to hear their sentences.

She received a 24-month suspended prison term at Southwark Crown Court after admitting illegal fund handling.

This has been a extended wait and represents a huge win for the individuals who testified, the law enforcement and legal representatives.

The Way the Investigation Started

The initial awareness of the company emerged during the mid-2016. I was working in the reporting team of a broadcasting service, making investigative shows.

A friend noted that his mother had taken over the use of a timeshare apartment in Spain and, after decades of vacations, had commenced searching to terminate the contract.

It is important to recall how popular timeshares had evolved with UK travelers in the last decades of the 20th century.

Timeshares allowed people to occupy the equivalent unit every year, or swap their weeks with additional holders who had apartments in other resorts. Approximately 600,000 vacation seekers took up that option.

The initial boom was accompanied by a lot of reports about unscrupulous sellers mis-selling investments. They became a staple on consumer broadcasts.

The standard timeshare contract bound owners for many years.

In that period, those investors who had enjoyed their guaranteed place in the resort for a long time were getting older, and many were looking to say farewell to their holiday properties.

Some had health issues and were unable to visit their properties. Some just believed they'd enjoyed sufficient use from them. And others had passed away, in frequent situations passing on their heirs to take over the deals - including their annual payments and upkeep costs.

The Undercover Operation Progresses

It was at this point the friend's mum had been placed. She searched the web for options and found the company, a firm whose online presence assured to terminate her contract.

However, having submitted funds and booked a meeting with them, her relatives became suspicious.

Additional investigation revealed many victims reporting they had handed over cash and received no benefit out of it. In fact, they had suffered financially. A lot of it.

The investigative unit began investigating what was going on. It quickly became clear that there were dubious individuals active in the holiday ownership market.

One lawyer had many grievance cases preparing to take action against SMT.

We spoke to clients who had engaged the company and they each reported similar experiences. They assumed 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 potential buyers.

Instead, they were encouraged - actually pressured - to commit further cash investing in "Monster Rewards", named after the business's umbrella group, the parent organization.

What exactly these were was rather ambiguous. They appeared to be a type of exchange medium, offering discount travel and amenities and consumer discounts.

And they were apparently "transferable with additional holders, eventually.

Paying cash immediately would produce an long-term benefit that would cover the company's charges and leave the property owner ahead financially, liberated eventually from their troublesome agreement.

An unbelievable offer? Indeed, it was.

A 'Misleading Scheme'

Assuming these reports were accurate, this was a massive scam.

This is known as a "deceptive marketing."

A business - in this case SMT - "baits" the client by advertising a defined offering and then say that's not available, steering the customer towards a different, lower-quality option.

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

Such an operation demands dedication, work, and clear arguments for why this is the only way to obtain the data needed to demonstrate illegal activity.

With approval secured, our small team organized a meeting with one of the firm's agents in the English town.

Pretending to be a member of the public wanting to get his mum out of her timeshare contract|holiday ownership agreement