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

Altogether 14 individuals have been sentenced for their part in a £28 million scheme to swindle more than 3,500 vacation property holders.

The affected individuals were keen to terminate decades-old vacation property deals and tried to find assistance.

A large number were from 60 and 80. Over 500 of them lost in excess of £10,000, and one individual handed over more than £80,000.

Those affected were exposed to aggressive sales meetings continuing for six hours. They were out of money, holding useless fake "points" and continued to be trapped in high-priced vacation property deals they often use.

The Firm Behind the Scam

The company at the centre of the scheme was Sell My Timeshare (SMT). They took people's money to fund the directors' lavish way of life of prestigious schooling, luxury homes and exclusive air travel.

The man at the head of the company, the company director, was handed a 90-month jail time in January for deceptive scheme.

Recently, his partner Nicola was part of the concluding cases to receive sentencing.

She was handed a two-year long suspended prison term at Southwark Crown Court after pleading guilty to illegal fund handling.

This has been a lengthy process and marks a major victory for the victims who came forward, the police and prosecutors.

How the Investigation Began

The first knowledge of the firm was in the mid-2016. I was working in the reporting team of a broadcasting service, creating investigative programmes.

A friend pointed out that his mother had assumed the use of a holiday property in Spain and, after years of holidays, had commenced searching to get out of the agreement.

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

Holiday ownership permitted people to access the identical property each season, or swap their time slots with other owners who had properties in alternative destinations. Roughly 600,000 vacation seekers seized that opportunity.

The initial boom was linked to a many reports about dishonest operators mis-selling investments. They became a staple on public interest TV programmes.

The typical vacation property deal bound owners for long periods.

By 2016, those owners who had enjoyed their assigned property in the sunshine for a long time were advancing in years, and a large proportion were looking to end their association to their timeshares.

Some had health issues and couldn't get to their properties. Some just thought they'd enjoyed sufficient use from them. And others had passed away, in frequent situations bequeathing their family members to assume the agreements - along with their annual payments and maintenance fees.

The Covert Probe Progresses

It was at this point the family member had ended up. She browsed the internet for answers and found the company, a firm whose digital platform promised to get her out of her agreement.

However, having paid a fee and booked a meeting with them, her loved ones became suspicious.

Subsequent checking showed hundreds of people saying they had submitted funds and got nothing in return. In fact, they had lost money. Significant sums.

Our team started looking into what was happening. It quickly became clear that there were questionable operators active in the timeshare resale sector.

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

We spoke to clients who had dealt with the organization and they each reported similar experiences. They assumed the firm would purchase their timeshare off them but when they participated in a session (for which they paid up front) they were advised there was no potential buyers.

Rather, they were encouraged - in fact compelled - to invest additional funds purchasing "the company's points system", named after the organization's holding firm, the overarching entity.

The precise definition was somewhat vague. They sounded like a form of credit, offering discount travel and amenities and shopping deals.

And they were reportedly "tradable" with other owners, eventually.

Investing money immediately would lead to an eventual payoff that would cover the company's charges and allow the investor with a gain, released finally from their burdensome deal.

Too good to be true? Certainly, that proved correct.

A 'Misleading Scam'

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

The technique is termed a "misleading sales."

Someone - specifically the organization - "baits" the customer by marketing a defined offering and then claim it is unavailable, pushing the individual to another, inferior offering.

This is against the law. Armed with all the evidence we had assembled, we presented the rationale to discreetly video one of the company's meetings.

This takes commitment, energy, and strong justifications for why this is the only way to collect the information required to confirm deceptive practices.

With approval secured, our limited crew set up a consultation with one of the company's representatives in the English town.

Posing as a potential client hoping to get his mum out of her timeshare contract|holiday ownership agreement