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Authorities have called it as among the biggest deceptions of its type in the UK.

In all 14 people have been sentenced for their role in a £28 million scheme to swindle in excess of 3,500 timeshare owners.

The targets were eager to terminate age-old holiday ownership agreements and went looking for help.

Most were in the age range of 60 and 80. Over 500 of them parted with over £10,000, and a single victim paid in excess of £80,000.

Those victimized were faced intense consultations continuing for six hours. They were out of money, owning worthless fake "points" and still locked into costly holiday ownership agreements they could no longer use.

The Company At the Heart of the Scam

The firm at the heart of the fraud was the timeshare resale company. They accepted customers' funds to support the directors' luxurious lifestyle of private schools, millionaire mansions and private jets.

The individual at the top of the firm, the company director, was given a seven and a half year jail time in January for fraudulent conspiracy.

In the latest development, his partner one of the co-defendants was part of the concluding cases to receive sentencing.

She received a two-year long deferred imprisonment at the judicial venue after admitting illegal fund handling.

It has been a extended wait and marks a major victory for the people who spoke out, the police and the Crown.

The Way the Probe Started

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

A acquaintance mentioned that his mum had taken over the ownership of a vacation unit in Spain and, after decades of vacations, had begun looking to get out of the contract.

It should be noted how common holiday ownership had become with British holidaymakers in the eighties and nineties.

Holiday ownership allowed families to use the identical property annually, or swap their vacation periods with other owners who had apartments in different locations. Approximately 600,000 sun-lovers took up that option.

The initial boom was paired with a lot of reports about unscrupulous sellers deceptively promoting properties. They were regularly featured on public interest TV programmes.

The typical holiday ownership agreement locked buyers for long periods.

In that period, those holders who had enjoyed their assigned property in the sun for a long time were advancing in years, and a significant number were looking to end their association to their vacation investments.

Several had reduced ability to travel and were unable to visit their units. Some just thought they'd got all they wanted from them. And a portion had passed away, in many cases bequeathing their family members to take over the contracts - including their regular contributions and maintenance fees.

The Undercover Operation Unfolds

And that's where the family member had been placed. She browsed the internet for solutions and discovered the company, a firm whose website promised to get her out of her contract.

However, having submitted funds and arranged an appointment with them, her loved ones had doubts.

Subsequent checking revealed numerous individuals saying they had paid money and got nothing in return. Indeed, they had been left out of pocket. Substantial amounts.

The reporting group commenced probing what was happening. It was rapidly apparent that there were questionable operators operating in the holiday ownership market.

A legal professional had hundreds of individual complaints aiming to litigate against SMT.

The team interviewed individuals who had used the firm and they each reported similar experiences. They thought the firm would acquire their investment away from them but when they went to a consultation (for which they paid up front) they were advised there was no re-sale value.

Instead, they were persuaded - actually coerced - to commit further cash purchasing "the company's points system", associated with the outfit's parent company, the parent organization.

What exactly these were was rather ambiguous. They appeared to be a type of exchange medium, giving access to cheaper vacations and benefits and retail offers.

And they were reportedly "transferable with additional holders, at a future date.

Committing funds at the time would result in an future return that would cover SMT's fees and allow the investor with a gain, released finally from their burdensome deal.

An unrealistic promise? Certainly, that proved correct.

A 'Misleading Scam'

If these accounts were accurate, this was a massive scam.

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

An operator - specifically the company - "baits" the client by promoting a defined offering only to then claim it is unavailable, steering the client to another, inferior option.

This is against the law. Equipped with all the testimony we had collected, we argued to secretly film one of the firm's consultations.

This takes time, effort, and compelling reasons for why this is the sole method to collect the data necessary to prove wrongdoing.

Armed with that permission, our compact group set up a appointment with one of the firm's agents in the English town.

Posing as a potential client wanting to help his mother out of her timeshare contract|holiday ownership agreement