The Way Secret Filming Exposed a Multi-Million Pound Timeshare Scam

Prosecutors have labeled it as a major scams of its nature in the United Kingdom.

Altogether 14 defendants have been sentenced for their role in a £28 million plot to cheat in excess of 3,500 vacation property owners.

The targets were desperate to get out of age-old holiday ownership agreements and sought out help.

Most were aged between 60 and 80. More than 500 of them parted with over £10,000, and one paid more than £80,000.

Those targeted were subjected to high-pressure presentations continuing for six hours. They were out of money, holding useless fake "rewards" and still bound by costly timeshare contracts they could no longer use.

The Business Behind the Fraud

The company at the heart of the scam was Sell My Timeshare (SMT). They collected people's money to fund the directors' luxurious way of life of prestigious schooling, millionaire mansions and personal aircraft.

The man at the top of the company, Mark Rowe, was given a seven and a half year prison term in January for conspiracy to defraud.

In the latest development, his partner Nicola was among the last group to receive sentencing.

She was handed a 24-month deferred imprisonment at the London court after confessing to money laundering.

It has been a long time coming and represents a significant success for the people who spoke out, the law enforcement and prosecutors.

The Way the Investigation Was Initiated

The initial awareness of the firm was in the summer of 2016. I was working in the reporting team of a broadcasting service, creating documentary programmes.

A acquaintance mentioned that his mother had inherited the ownership of a timeshare apartment in the Spanish coast and, after decades of vacations, had commenced searching to exit the deal.

It is important to recall how common holiday ownership had grown with British holidaymakers in the 1980s and 1990s.

Timeshares enabled people to use the equivalent unit each season, or exchange their vacation periods with other owners who had apartments in other resorts. About 600,000 vacation seekers took up that chance.

The early surge was paired with a many reports about rip-off merchants mis-selling investments. They were regularly featured on consumer shows.

The standard holiday ownership agreement locked buyers for long periods.

In that period, those holders who had experienced their regular accommodation in the sun for a long time were getting older, and a large proportion were hoping to say farewell to their holiday properties.

Some had declining mobility and found it difficult to access their apartments. Others just thought they'd got all they wanted from them. And some had passed away, in frequent situations bequeathing their family members to inherit the agreements - along with their regular contributions and service charges.

The Covert Probe Unfolds

It was at this point the family member had been placed. She searched the web for solutions and came across the organization, a firm whose digital platform assured to get her out of her deal.

But, having paid a fee and booked a meeting with them, her loved ones had doubts.

Further research uncovered hundreds of people claiming they had paid money and achieved no result from the service. Indeed, they had lost money. Substantial amounts.

The investigative unit began investigating what was going on. It soon emerged that there were dubious individuals working within the holiday ownership market.

A legal professional had hundreds of individual complaints preparing to take action against the company.

Reporters contacted individuals who had used the firm and they collectively described identical situations. They assumed the firm would acquire their investment off them but when they participated in a session (for which they made an advance payment) they were advised there was no market for their property.

Instead, they were encouraged - actually compelled - to invest additional funds investing in "the company's points system", linked to the organization's holding firm, the overarching entity.

The precise definition was rather ambiguous. They sounded like a kind of currency, providing cheaper vacations and services and shopping deals.

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

Paying cash at the time would produce an eventual payoff that would pay for the firm's costs and allow the timeshare holder in profit, released finally from their pesky deal.

An unrealistic promise? Indeed, it was.

A 'Deceptive Tactic'

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

It's what is called a "bait-and-switch."

Someone - specifically SMT - "baits" the client by promoting a defined offering and then say that's not available, pushing the client to an alternative, lesser product or service.

That's illegal. Possessing all the accounts we had assembled, we presented the rationale to covertly record one of the organization's sessions.

The process requires dedication, work, and clear arguments for why this is the only way to gather the evidence necessary to demonstrate illegal activity.

With approval secured, our limited crew organized a meeting with one of the organization's staff in the English town.

Posing as a potential client aiming to get his mum out of her timeshare contract|holiday ownership agreement