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

Altogether 14 people have been found guilty for their part in a multi-million pound scheme to cheat more than 3,500 vacation property owners.

The targets were desperate to get out of long-standing vacation property deals and sought out assistance.

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

Those targeted were subjected to intense presentations lasting up to six hours. They were left out of pocket, owning useless fake "points" and remained locked into expensive timeshare contracts they often use.

The Company Central to the Scam

The business at the centre of the scheme was the organization in question. They collected clients' cash to support the proprietors' luxurious lifestyle of exclusive education, luxury homes and exclusive air travel.

The leader at the helm of the firm, the main defendant, was handed a seven and a half year jail time in January for conspiracy to defraud.

Recently, his wife Nicola was among the last group to receive sentencing.

She received a two-year long suspended prison term at the London court after pleading guilty to financial crime.

This has been a long time coming and marks a major victory for the people who spoke out, the law enforcement and the Crown.

How the Probe Was Initiated

I first heard about the company came in the summer of 2016. The role involved in the reporting team of a broadcasting service, producing documentary features.

A acquaintance pointed out that his mother had taken over the use of a vacation unit in Spain and, after decades of vacations, had started seeking to get out of the contract.

It's worth mentioning how widespread timeshares had grown with UK travelers in the last decades of the 20th century.

Holiday ownership enabled people to access the identical property annually, or swap their weeks with other owners who had units in different locations. About 600,000 holiday enthusiasts seized that chance.

The early surge was linked to a numerous stories about rip-off merchants mis-selling units. They became a staple on public interest broadcasts.

The typical vacation property deal locked buyers for long periods.

At that time, those investors who had enjoyed their guaranteed place in the sunshine for decades were ageing, and a large proportion were attempting to end their association to their vacation investments.

Some had declining mobility and couldn't get to their properties. Some just felt they'd achieved their goals from them. And some had died, in frequent situations leaving their loved ones to inherit the deals - including their annual payments and service charges.

The Covert Probe Unfolds

This was the situation the friend's mum had found herself. She searched the web for options and discovered the organization, a business whose online presence assured to get her out of her deal.

However, having submitted funds and arranged an appointment with them, her relatives smelled a rat.

Further research revealed numerous individuals claiming they had paid money and achieved no result in return. Indeed, they had been left out of pocket. A lot of it.

Our team commenced probing what was occurring. It was rapidly apparent that there were some shady characters working within the vacation property industry.

One lawyer had many grievance cases waiting to sue the organization.

The team interviewed people who had engaged the company and they each reported similar experiences. They believed the firm would purchase their timeshare from them but when they participated in a session (for which they made an advance payment) they were informed there was no market for their property.

Instead, they were encouraged - in fact coerced - to invest additional funds acquiring "the company's points system", named after the organization's holding firm, the parent organization.

The nature of these rewards was not exactly clear. They seemed similar to a form of credit, offering cheaper vacations and services and retail offers.

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

Paying cash up front now would lead to an future return that would cover the firm's costs and result in the property owner in profit, liberated eventually from their pesky deal.

An unbelievable offer? Certainly, that proved correct.

A 'Bait-and-Switch Scam'

If these accounts were accurate, this was a major deception.

This is known as a "misleading sales."

Someone - specifically SMT - "lures the consumer by marketing a specific service only to then say that's not available, steering the customer in the direction of another, inferior product or service.

That's illegal. Possessing all the evidence we had collected, we argued to discreetly video one of the firm's consultations.

This takes commitment, energy, and strong justifications for why this is the exclusive approach to obtain the data necessary to prove wrongdoing.

Armed with that permission, our limited crew organized a meeting with one of the firm's agents in Stratford-Upon-Avon.

Acting as a member of the public hoping to help his mother free from her timeshare contract|holiday ownership agreement