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Authorities have called it as one of the largest frauds of its type in the UK.

In all 14 individuals have been convicted for their involvement in a multi-million pound conspiracy to defraud in excess of 3,500 holiday ownership owners.

The targets were eager to get out of long-standing timeshare contracts and went looking for assistance.

The majority were in the age range of 60 and 80. Over 500 of them surrendered more than £10,000, and one paid in excess of £80,000.

Those targeted were exposed to aggressive presentations extending for six hours. They were financially worse off, holding valueless fake "credits" and still trapped in expensive vacation property deals they could no longer use.

The Firm Central to the Scam

The firm at the core of the fraud was Sell My Timeshare (SMT). They collected customers' funds to finance the proprietors' lavish standard of living of exclusive education, millionaire mansions and personal aircraft.

The individual at the top of the firm, the main defendant, was handed a seven-and-half year jail time in January for deceptive scheme.

In the latest development, his partner Nicola was among the last group to learn their fate.

She was given a two-year suspended jail sentence at the judicial venue after confessing to money laundering.

The outcome represents a lengthy process and marks a huge win for the people who spoke out, the police and the Crown.

The Way the Probe Began

The initial awareness of SMT was in the that particular year. The position was in the investigations unit of a media outlet, producing investigative features.

A colleague noted that his parent had taken over the rights of a holiday property in the Spanish coast and, after years of holidays, had begun looking to exit the deal.

It is important to recall how common vacation properties had grown with British holidaymakers in the eighties and nineties.

Vacation properties enabled individuals to use the equivalent unit each season, or swap their vacation periods with fellow investors who had units in alternative destinations. Roughly 600,000 sun-lovers took up that opportunity.

The initial boom was accompanied by a many stories about rip-off merchants fraudulently marketing properties. They became a staple on consumer TV programmes.

The standard vacation property deal locked buyers for decades.

At that time, those owners who had enjoyed their regular accommodation in the sun for 20 or 30 years were getting older, and a large proportion were attempting to end their association to their vacation investments.

A number had reduced ability to travel and couldn't get to their apartments. Some just felt they'd achieved their goals from them. And a portion had died, in many cases leaving their loved ones to inherit the deals - along with their annual payments and service charges.

The Investigation Unfolds

This was the situation the friend's mum had ended up. She looked online for solutions and found SMT, a enterprise whose online presence assured to get her out of her agreement.

However, having made a payment and booked a meeting with them, her relatives had doubts.

Further research uncovered numerous individuals saying they had paid money and got nothing out of it. Actually, they had suffered financially. Significant sums.

The investigative unit began investigating what was occurring. It soon emerged that there were some shady characters active in the vacation property industry.

One lawyer had many grievance cases aiming to litigate against the organization.

Reporters contacted individuals who had dealt with the organization and they each reported similar experiences. They believed the company would purchase their timeshare away from them but when they participated in a session (for which they made an advance payment) they were advised there was no re-sale value.

Rather, they were pushed - in fact coerced - to invest additional funds purchasing "Monster Rewards", named after the business's umbrella group, Monster Travel.

What exactly these were was rather ambiguous. They sounded like a kind of currency, offering discount travel and benefits and consumer discounts.

And they were apparently "tradable" with fellow investors, some time down the line.

Committing funds up front now would result in an long-term benefit that would cover the company's charges and leave the property owner ahead financially, released finally from their troublesome agreement.

An unrealistic promise? Indeed, it was.

A 'Bait-and-Switch Scam'

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

The technique is termed a "deceptive marketing."

Someone - in this case SMT - "attracts the consumer by marketing a specific service but then to say that's not available, pushing the customer to a different, lower-quality option.

Such practices are unlawful. Equipped with all the accounts we had assembled, we presented the rationale to covertly record one of the firm's consultations.

Such an operation demands commitment, energy, and clear arguments for why this is the only way to gather the evidence required to demonstrate illegal activity.

With approval secured, our small team arranged a consultation with one of the firm's agents in the location.

Posing as a member of the public wanting to help his mother out of her timeshare contract|holiday ownership agreement