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It has been described as one of the largest scams of its kind in the UK.

A total of 14 individuals have been convicted for their part in a multi-million pound conspiracy to swindle in excess of 3,500 holiday ownership owners.

The victims were eager to terminate age-old vacation property deals and tried to find support.

The majority were from 60 and 80. In excess of 500 of them parted with more than £10,000, and one individual handed over more than £80,000.

Those affected were faced aggressive presentations lasting up to six hours. They were out of money, owning worthless fake "points" and remained locked into expensive vacation property deals they frequently were unable to use.

The Firm Central to the Deception

The business at the centre of the scheme was the timeshare resale company. They took people's money to support the directors' lavish standard of living of exclusive education, high-end properties and personal aircraft.

The man at the top of the firm, the company director, was sentenced to a seven-and-half year prison term in January for fraudulent conspiracy.

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

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

The outcome represents a lengthy process and marks a significant success for the people who spoke out, the police and legal representatives.

How the Probe Started

The first knowledge of the company came in the that particular year. The role involved in the reporting team of a media outlet, creating current affairs features.

A acquaintance pointed out that his mother had inherited the use of a vacation unit in a European resort and, after years of holidays, had begun looking to exit the deal.

It's worth mentioning how widespread holiday ownership had become with British holidaymakers in the eighties and nineties.

Vacation properties allowed families to occupy the same accommodation every year, or exchange their vacation periods with additional holders who had apartments in other resorts. About 600,000 sun-lovers accepted that chance.

The initial boom was accompanied by a lot of stories about unscrupulous sellers mis-selling investments. They were regularly featured on consumer shows.

The typical vacation property deal bound owners for decades.

In that period, those owners who had used their regular accommodation in the sun for a long time were getting older, and a significant number were looking to end their association to their holiday properties.

Several had reduced ability to travel and couldn't get to their apartments. Others just believed they'd achieved their goals from them. And some had died, in many cases passing on their loved ones to take over the agreements - including their yearly fees and maintenance fees.

The Investigation Progresses

It was at this point the relative had ended up. She browsed the internet for answers and found SMT, a firm whose online presence claimed to terminate her deal.

Yet, having submitted funds and booked a meeting with them, her relatives had doubts.

Subsequent checking showed numerous individuals reporting they had submitted funds and got nothing in return. In fact, they had lost money. A lot of it.

Our team started looking into what was going on. It quickly became clear that there were questionable operators active in the holiday ownership market.

One lawyer had hundreds of individual complaints preparing to take action against the organization.

The team interviewed clients who had engaged the company and they collectively described identical situations. They thought the company would acquire their investment off them but when they went to a consultation (for which they made an advance payment) they were told there was no re-sale value.

In place of that, they were encouraged - actually compelled - to spend more money purchasing "the firm's incentive scheme", named after the outfit's parent company, the overarching entity.

The precise definition was not exactly clear. They appeared to be a form of credit, giving access to discount travel and services and consumer discounts.

And they were seemingly "exchangeable with other owners, eventually.

Committing funds at the time would produce an future return that would pay for SMT's fees and leave the timeshare holder in profit, freed at last from their pesky deal.

Too good to be true? Certainly, that proved correct.

A 'Misleading Tactic'

If these accounts were accurate, this was a large-scale fraud.

The technique is termed a "misleading sales."

An operator - specifically the company - "baits" the client by marketing a specific service only to then say that's not available, directing the customer towards another, inferior option.

This is against the law. Equipped with all the accounts we had assembled, we presented the rationale to secretly film one of the company's meetings.

This takes commitment, energy, and strong justifications for why this is the only way to gather the evidence necessary to demonstrate illegal activity.

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

Posing as a member of the public hoping to get his mum out of her timeshare contract|holiday ownership agreement