How Secret Filming Revealed a £28m Holiday Ownership Scheme

It has been described as a major frauds of its type in the Britain.

A total of 14 individuals have been sentenced for their part in a multi-million pound plot to cheat in excess of 3,500 holiday ownership holders.

The affected individuals were desperate to terminate long-standing timeshare contracts and sought out support.

A large number were in the age range of 60 and 80. More than 500 of them lost over £10,000, and one individual paid over £80,000.

Those affected were exposed to high-pressure sales meetings lasting up to six hours. They were financially worse off, owning valueless fake "credits" and continued to be bound by expensive vacation property deals they frequently were unable to use.

The Company At the Heart of the Fraud

The business at the centre of the fraud was the timeshare resale company. They collected people's money to fund the proprietors' lavish standard of living of exclusive education, luxury homes and private jets.

The man at the head of the firm, the main defendant, was sentenced to a seven and a half year prison term in January for deceptive scheme.

Recently, his partner Nicola was among the last group to hear their sentences.

She was handed a 24-month suspended prison term at the London court after pleading guilty to money laundering.

The outcome represents a extended wait and signifies a huge win for the victims who came forward, the law enforcement and legal representatives.

How the Investigation Began

I first heard about the company emerged during the mid-2016. I was working in the reporting team of a news organization, making investigative programmes.

A friend pointed out that his mum had inherited the rights of a timeshare apartment in the Spanish coast and, after years of holidays, had started seeking to get out of the contract.

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

Vacation properties enabled people to access the same accommodation every year, or trade their weeks with fellow investors who had units in other resorts. Roughly 600,000 sun-lovers seized that opportunity.

The early surge was linked to a many reports about unscrupulous sellers fraudulently marketing units. They became a staple on consumer shows.

The standard vacation property deal locked buyers for many years.

At that time, those investors who had enjoyed their regular accommodation in the sun for 20 or 30 years were getting older, and many were attempting to say farewell to their timeshares.

Several had reduced ability to travel and found it difficult to access their properties. Some just felt they'd got all they wanted from them. And some had passed away, in frequent situations leaving their family members to take over the agreements - including their regular contributions and upkeep costs.

The Undercover Operation Unfolds

And that's where the friend's mum had found herself. She searched the web for solutions and came across the company, a firm whose digital platform promised to get her out of her deal.

Yet, having paid a fee and booked a meeting with them, her family became suspicious.

Subsequent checking showed hundreds of people reporting they had submitted funds and received no benefit out of it. Indeed, they had been left out of pocket. Significant sums.

The investigative unit started looking into what was happening. It quickly became clear that there were some shady characters working within the vacation property industry.

One lawyer had hundreds of individual complaints aiming to litigate against the company.

We spoke to clients who had engaged the company and they collectively described identical situations. They thought the business would buy their property off them but when they attended a meeting (for which they paid up front) they were informed there was no potential buyers.

Instead, they were persuaded - in fact compelled - to commit further cash investing in "Monster Rewards", associated with the business's umbrella group, Monster Travel.

The precise definition was not exactly clear. They seemed similar to a form of credit, giving access to reduced-price holidays and services and retail offers.

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

Investing money up front now would produce an long-term benefit that would offset SMT's fees and result in the property owner ahead financially, liberated eventually from their pesky contract.

An unbelievable offer? Certainly, that proved correct.

A 'Bait-and-Switch Scam'

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

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

An operator - here SMT - "baits" the consumer by advertising a specific service and then say that's not available, steering the customer towards a different, lower-quality offering.

This is against the law. Possessing all the evidence we had collected, we argued to secretly film one of the company's meetings.

This takes commitment, energy, and clear arguments for why this is the exclusive approach to obtain the evidence needed to demonstrate illegal activity.

With approval secured, our compact group set up a consultation with one of the company's representatives in the location.

Pretending to be a potential client hoping to get his mum released from her timeshare contract|holiday ownership agreement