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Prosecutors have labeled it as among the biggest deceptions of its kind in the United Kingdom.

A total of 14 people have been convicted for their involvement in a multi-million pound scheme to defraud over 3,500 timeshare investors.

The targets were desperate to get out of age-old vacation property deals and went looking for help.

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

Those affected were subjected to aggressive presentations lasting up to six hours. They were financially worse off, owning useless fake "credits" and still bound by high-priced timeshare contracts they often use.

The Company Behind the Deception

The firm at the core of the scheme was Sell My Timeshare (SMT). They took customers' funds to finance the owners' luxurious way of life of private schools, luxury homes and exclusive air travel.

The man at the helm of the organization, the main defendant, was sentenced to a seven and a half year jail time in January for deceptive scheme.

On Friday, his wife one of the co-defendants was among the last group to receive sentencing.

She received a two-year suspended jail sentence at the judicial venue after pleading guilty to financial crime.

This has been a lengthy process and marks a huge win for the individuals who testified, the police and legal representatives.

How the Probe Started

The initial awareness of the company came in the that particular year. I was working in the reporting team of a media outlet, producing investigative features.

A friend mentioned that his mum had assumed the use of a holiday property in a European resort and, after years of holidays, had commenced searching to exit the agreement.

It's worth mentioning how popular holiday ownership had evolved with English tourists in the last decades of the 20th century.

Holiday ownership allowed people to use the equivalent unit each season, or trade their time slots with fellow investors who had properties in different locations. About 600,000 sun-lovers took up that opportunity.

The first timeshare rush was paired with a many stories about dishonest operators fraudulently marketing properties. They became a staple on consumer broadcasts.

The common holiday ownership agreement tied investors in for long periods.

In that period, those owners who had enjoyed their guaranteed place in the sunshine for decades were getting older, and a significant number were looking to wave goodbye to their vacation investments.

A number had reduced ability to travel and found it difficult to access their apartments. A few just believed they'd achieved their goals from them. And others had deceased, in frequent situations leaving their heirs to inherit the agreements - along with their annual payments and service charges.

The Undercover Operation Progresses

This was the situation the friend's mum had been placed. She looked online for options and discovered the company, a firm whose online presence claimed to release her from her deal.

However, having paid a fee and arranged an appointment with them, her family had doubts.

Additional investigation uncovered hundreds of people saying they had paid money and achieved no result from the service. Indeed, they had suffered financially. Substantial amounts.

The investigative unit started looking into what was occurring. It quickly became clear that there were dubious individuals active in the vacation property industry.

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

Reporters contacted clients who had dealt with the organization and they collectively described identical situations. They believed the firm would purchase their timeshare away from them but when they went to a consultation (for which they submitted funds initially) they were told there was no re-sale value.

In place of that, they were pushed - in fact compelled - to invest additional funds investing in "the company's points system", associated with the organization's holding firm, the parent organization.

The precise definition was somewhat vague. They appeared to be a form of credit, giving access to discount travel and benefits and retail offers.

And they were apparently "tradable" with additional holders, some time down the line.

Paying cash immediately would produce an long-term benefit that would offset SMT's fees and result in the property owner in profit, liberated eventually from their troublesome deal.

An unrealistic promise? Well, yes.

A 'Deceptive Scam'

Assuming these reports were accurate, this was a major deception.

It's what is called a "misleading sales."

An operator - in this case the company - "lures the customer by marketing a particular product only to then claim it is unavailable, pushing the individual towards another, inferior product or service.

This is against the law. Armed with all the accounts we had assembled, we made the case to covertly record one of the company's meetings.

Such an operation demands time, effort, and strong justifications for why this is the sole method to obtain the evidence necessary to prove wrongdoing.

With approval secured, our limited crew arranged a appointment with one of the company's representatives in the location.

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