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It has been described as one of the largest frauds of its kind in the UK.

Altogether 14 defendants have been found guilty for their involvement in a £28m plot to swindle more than 3,500 vacation property investors.

The targets were eager to exit age-old vacation property deals and went looking for help.

Most were aged between 60 and 80. Over 500 of them surrendered more than £10,000, and a single victim paid over £80,000.

Those targeted were faced aggressive sales meetings lasting up to six hours. They were left out of pocket, holding worthless fake "rewards" and still locked into costly timeshare contracts they frequently were unable to use.

The Firm At the Heart of the Scam

The company at the heart of the scam was Sell My Timeshare (SMT). They took customers' funds to support the owners' luxurious lifestyle of prestigious schooling, high-end properties and personal aircraft.

The individual at the head of the organization, the main defendant, was handed a seven and a half year jail time in January for conspiracy to defraud.

On Friday, his partner one of the co-defendants was among the last group to receive sentencing.

She was handed a 24-month suspended jail sentence at the judicial venue after pleading guilty to money laundering.

This has been a lengthy process and represents a major victory for the victims who came forward, the police and legal representatives.

The Way the Probe Started

The first knowledge of the company came in the that particular year. I was working in the research department of a news organization, making current affairs programmes.

A colleague pointed out that his mother had taken over the ownership of a vacation unit in a European resort and, after decades of vacations, had begun looking to get out of the contract.

It is important to recall how widespread holiday ownership had evolved with British holidaymakers in the eighties and nineties.

Timeshares permitted individuals to use the same accommodation every year, or trade their weeks with other owners who had apartments in different locations. Approximately 600,000 sun-lovers accepted that chance.

The initial boom was accompanied by a numerous reports about dishonest operators mis-selling units. They became a staple on public interest TV programmes.

The standard vacation property deal bound owners for many years.

In that period, those investors who had used their regular accommodation in the resort for decades were ageing, and many were hoping to say farewell to their holiday properties.

Several had declining mobility and were unable to visit their units. Some just thought they'd enjoyed sufficient use from them. And some had passed away, in many cases passing on their heirs to inherit the agreements - including their annual payments and maintenance fees.

The Covert Probe Unfolds

It was at this point the family member had been placed. She searched the web for options and came across the organization, a enterprise whose website claimed to release her from her contract.

But, having paid a fee and arranged an appointment with them, her relatives became suspicious.

Additional investigation revealed numerous individuals claiming they had handed over cash and got nothing in return. In fact, they had suffered financially. Significant sums.

Our team commenced probing what was occurring. It quickly became clear that there were dubious individuals operating in the vacation property industry.

A legal professional had numerous client reports aiming to litigate against the company.

The team interviewed people who had dealt with the organization and they all told the same story. They believed the business would purchase their timeshare off them but when they went to a consultation (for which they submitted funds initially) they were advised there was no market for their property.

In place of that, they were pushed - actually compelled - to spend more money acquiring "the company's points system", linked to the outfit's parent company, the parent organization.

What exactly these were was somewhat vague. They sounded like a type of exchange medium, giving access to cheaper vacations and benefits and retail offers.

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

Committing funds immediately would lead to an long-term benefit that would cover SMT's fees and leave the investor ahead financially, freed at last from their burdensome deal.

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

A 'Misleading Tactic'

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

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

A business - in this case the organization - "attracts the customer by advertising a specific service and then claim it is unavailable, directing the customer to a different, lower-quality product or service.

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

This takes dedication, work, and strong justifications for why this is the sole method to obtain the information required to prove wrongdoing.

With approval secured, our small team arranged a consultation with one of the firm's agents in the location.

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