The Way Covert Filming Uncovered a Multi-Million Pound Timeshare Fraud

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

In all 14 people have been sentenced for their involvement in a £28m scheme to defraud more than 3,500 vacation property owners.

The victims were keen to get out of long-standing vacation property deals and tried to find help.

The majority were in the age range of 60 and 80. Over 500 of them parted with over £10,000, and one paid in excess of £80,000.

Those affected were exposed to aggressive sales meetings continuing for six hours. They were left out of pocket, possessing valueless fake "points" and continued to be trapped in expensive holiday ownership agreements they could no longer use.

The Company Behind the Deception

The firm at the core of the fraud was Sell My Timeshare (SMT). They accepted people's money to fund the directors' lavish standard of living of prestigious schooling, high-end properties and private jets.

The leader at the helm of the company, the main defendant, was handed a 90-month prison term in January for fraudulent conspiracy.

Recently, his partner another individual was one of the final three to learn their fate.

She was handed a two-year long deferred imprisonment at the London court after admitting financial crime.

The outcome represents a long time coming and marks a huge win for the individuals who testified, the law enforcement and the Crown.

The Way the Investigation Started

The initial awareness of SMT emerged during the summer of 2016. I was working in the research department of a news organization, making investigative programmes.

A colleague pointed out that his mother had inherited the use of a timeshare apartment in the Spanish coast and, after decades of vacations, had started seeking to get out of the deal.

It is important to recall how widespread vacation properties had become with English tourists in the 1980s and 1990s.

Timeshares permitted individuals to occupy the same accommodation every year, or exchange their vacation periods with additional holders who had properties in different locations. About 600,000 holiday enthusiasts accepted that opportunity.

The initial boom was paired with a lot of accounts about dishonest operators fraudulently marketing units. They were regularly featured on consumer shows.

The typical timeshare contract tied investors in for decades.

In that period, those investors who had enjoyed their guaranteed place in the sunshine for decades were advancing in years, and many were attempting to say farewell to their holiday properties.

Some had health issues and found it difficult to access their units. Others just felt they'd achieved their goals from them. And some had deceased, in numerous instances passing on their family members to take over the deals - plus their regular contributions and maintenance fees.

The Covert Probe Progresses

It was at this point the friend's mum had found herself. She looked online for answers and came across SMT, a enterprise whose website promised to get her out of her deal.

However, having submitted funds and scheduled a consultation with them, her relatives smelled a rat.

Further research revealed many victims reporting they had paid money and received no benefit out of it. Indeed, they had lost money. Significant sums.

The investigative unit began investigating what was going on. It quickly became clear that there were some shady characters active in the vacation property industry.

A legal professional had many grievance cases aiming to litigate against the organization.

We spoke to clients who had dealt with the organization and they each reported similar experiences. They assumed the company would buy their property off them but when they attended a meeting (for which they submitted funds initially) they were advised there was no potential buyers.

In place of that, they were persuaded - in fact compelled - to spend more money acquiring "the firm's incentive scheme", named after the organization's holding firm, Monster Travel.

The nature of these rewards was somewhat vague. They seemed similar to a form of credit, giving access to reduced-price holidays and amenities and retail offers.

And they were seemingly "tradable" with additional holders, eventually.

Paying cash at the time would produce an long-term benefit that would offset the company's charges and leave the timeshare holder ahead financially, freed at last from their pesky deal.

Too good to be true? Well, yes.

A 'Deceptive Tactic'

Based on these descriptions were accurate, this was a large-scale fraud.

The technique is termed a "deceptive marketing."

Someone - in this case SMT - "baits" the consumer by promoting a specific service and then claim it is unavailable, pushing the customer towards an alternative, lesser offering.

Such practices are unlawful. Possessing all the accounts we had gathered, we presented the rationale to discreetly video one of the organization's sessions.

The process requires dedication, work, and compelling reasons for why this is the only way to gather the data required to prove wrongdoing.

Armed with that permission, our compact group organized a appointment with one of the firm's agents in the location.

Posing as a member of the public wanting to assist his parent free from her timeshare contract|holiday ownership agreement