🔗 Share this article

It has been described as among the biggest deceptions of its type in the UK.

In all 14 defendants have been convicted for their involvement in a £28 million plot to swindle in excess of 3,500 timeshare owners.

The affected individuals were eager to terminate decades-old holiday ownership agreements and tried to find support.

A large number were aged between 60 and 80. In excess of 500 of them parted with more than £10,000, and one paid more than £80,000.

Those affected were exposed to aggressive consultations continuing for six hours. They were out of money, holding useless fake "points" and still locked into high-priced timeshare contracts they could no longer use.

The Business At the Heart of the Scam

The firm at the heart of the fraud was Sell My Timeshare (SMT). They accepted clients' cash to fund the owners' lavish way of life of exclusive education, millionaire mansions and personal aircraft.

The individual at the head of the firm, the main defendant, was sentenced to a seven and a half year prison term in January for deceptive scheme.

Recently, his partner Nicola was one of the final three to receive sentencing.

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

It has been a extended wait and represents a significant success for the individuals who testified, the law enforcement and the Crown.

The Way the Probe Began

I first heard about SMT came in the mid-2016. I was working in the reporting team of a news organization, producing current affairs programmes.

A friend pointed out that his mother had assumed the ownership of a vacation unit in the Spanish coast and, after long-term use, had begun looking to terminate the contract.

It is important to recall how widespread timeshares had become with UK travelers in the eighties and nineties.

Timeshares permitted families to use the equivalent unit every year, or exchange their weeks with additional holders who had apartments in alternative destinations. Approximately 600,000 sun-lovers accepted that chance.

The first timeshare rush was accompanied by a many accounts about rip-off merchants mis-selling investments. They appeared frequently on investigative broadcasts.

The common holiday ownership agreement tied investors in for many years.

At that time, those holders who had experienced their regular accommodation in the sun for 20 or 30 years were ageing, and a significant number were looking to say farewell to their holiday properties.

Some had reduced ability to travel and couldn't get to their apartments. Some just felt they'd achieved their goals from them. And others had passed away, in many cases passing on their family members to take over the agreements - along with their yearly fees and service charges.

The Investigation Progresses

And that's where the family member had found herself. She browsed the internet for options and found the company, a firm whose website assured to get her out of her contract.

But, having paid a fee and scheduled a consultation with them, her loved ones became suspicious.

Further research uncovered numerous individuals saying they had paid money and received no benefit from the service. In fact, they had lost money. Substantial amounts.

The reporting group began investigating what was happening. It soon emerged that there were some shady characters working within the holiday ownership market.

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

Reporters contacted individuals who had used the firm and they collectively described identical situations. They assumed the business would buy their property from them but when they went to a consultation (for which they made an advance payment) they were told there was no potential buyers.

Rather, they were pushed - indeed coerced - to invest additional funds purchasing "Monster Rewards", named after the organization's holding firm, the parent organization.

The precise definition was somewhat vague. They sounded like a kind of currency, giving access to discount travel and benefits and shopping deals.

And they were reportedly "tradable" with other owners, at a future date.

Investing money immediately would lead to an long-term benefit that would pay for SMT's fees and leave the timeshare holder in profit, freed at last from their burdensome deal.

An unrealistic promise? Certainly, that proved correct.

A 'Bait-and-Switch Scam'

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

This is known as a "misleading sales."

Someone - in this case the organization - "baits" the customer by advertising a particular product and then claim it is unavailable, steering the individual towards an alternative, lesser product or service.

That's illegal. Possessing all the accounts we had gathered, we argued to secretly film one of the organization's sessions.

The process requires dedication, work, and clear arguments for why this is the only way to gather the data needed to confirm deceptive practices.

With approval secured, our compact group set up a appointment with one of the organization's staff in Stratford-Upon-Avon.

Pretending to be a ordinary individual aiming to get his mum out of her timeshare contract|holiday ownership agreement