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

Altogether 14 people have been convicted for their part in a £28m scheme to swindle more than 3,500 vacation property investors.

The victims were desperate to get out of decades-old timeshare contracts and sought out assistance.

Most were from 60 and 80. In excess of 500 of them lost over £10,000, and one handed over more than £80,000.

Those affected were faced high-pressure presentations lasting up to six hours. They were financially worse off, owning useless fake "rewards" and remained trapped in costly vacation property deals they frequently were unable to use.

The Business Behind the Deception

The company at the heart of the scheme was the timeshare resale company. They accepted clients' cash to fund the owners' opulent standard of living of prestigious schooling, luxury homes and exclusive air travel.

The man at the top of the firm, Mark Rowe, was sentenced to a seven-and-half year jail time in January for fraudulent conspiracy.

Recently, his wife one of the co-defendants was part of the concluding cases to hear their sentences.

She was given a two-year suspended jail sentence at the London court after confessing to illegal fund handling.

This has been a long time coming and signifies a huge win for the people who spoke out, the law enforcement and the Crown.

The Way the Inquiry Started

The first knowledge of the firm was in the summer of 2016. I was working in the reporting team of a media outlet, creating documentary features.

A acquaintance pointed out that his mum had taken over the ownership of a vacation unit in the Spanish coast and, after years of holidays, had commenced searching to get out of the deal.

It is important to recall how common vacation properties had evolved with English tourists in the last decades of the 20th century.

Timeshares permitted individuals to occupy the identical property each season, or trade their time slots with additional holders who had units in other resorts. Approximately 600,000 sun-lovers seized that option.

The first timeshare rush was accompanied by a lot of stories about rip-off merchants deceptively promoting properties. They appeared frequently on public interest TV programmes.

The typical timeshare contract bound owners for decades.

By 2016, those investors who had enjoyed their guaranteed place in the sun for 20 or 30 years were getting older, and a large proportion were looking to wave goodbye to their vacation investments.

Some had health issues and found it difficult to access their properties. A few just believed they'd enjoyed sufficient use from them. And others had died, in many cases leaving their loved ones to take over the agreements - plus their yearly fees and maintenance fees.

The Undercover Operation Unfolds

It was at this point the friend's mum had found herself. She searched the web for answers and found the organization, a firm whose digital platform claimed to release her from her agreement.

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

Further research showed many victims reporting they had paid money and received no benefit out of it. In fact, they had lost money. Substantial amounts.

Our team commenced probing what was going on. It quickly became clear that there were some shady characters working within the holiday ownership market.

One lawyer had numerous client reports preparing to take action against SMT.

We spoke to individuals who had engaged the company and they all told the same story. They believed the firm would acquire their investment away from them but when they participated in a session (for which they paid up front) they were told there was no market for their property.

Rather, they were encouraged - actually compelled - to spend more money purchasing "the firm's incentive scheme", linked to the outfit's parent company, Monster Travel.

The nature of these rewards was rather ambiguous. They sounded like a form of credit, offering discount travel and amenities and shopping deals.

And they were seemingly "transferable with other owners, at a future date.

Committing funds up front now would lead to an eventual payoff that would cover the firm's costs and allow the timeshare holder ahead financially, liberated eventually from their burdensome deal.

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

A 'Bait-and-Switch Scam'

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

The technique is termed a "bait-and-switch."

A business - in this case SMT - "lures the consumer by advertising a particular product and then say that's not available, steering the customer towards an alternative, lesser offering.

Such practices are unlawful. Equipped with all the accounts we had collected, we made the case to discreetly video one of the firm's consultations.

The process requires time, effort, and clear arguments for why this is the exclusive approach to collect the data necessary to demonstrate illegal activity.

Once authorized, our limited crew organized a appointment with one of the company's representatives in the location.

Posing as a member of the public aiming to get his mum out of her timeshare contract|holiday ownership agreement