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

Altogether 14 people have been sentenced for their part in a multi-million pound plot to cheat in excess of 3,500 timeshare owners.

The targets were keen to exit decades-old vacation property deals and tried to find help.

Most were aged between 60 and 80. Over 500 of them lost more than £10,000, and one individual paid over £80,000.

Those targeted were faced intense presentations lasting up to six hours. They were financially worse off, holding worthless fake "points" and still trapped in costly timeshare contracts they could no longer use.

The Business At the Heart of the Deception

The company at the centre of the scheme was Sell My Timeshare (SMT). They took customers' funds to support the directors' luxurious lifestyle of private schools, luxury homes and exclusive air travel.

The man at the head of the company, Mark Rowe, was sentenced to a seven and a half year sentence in January for deceptive scheme.

In the latest development, his wife one of the co-defendants was part of the concluding cases to hear their sentences.

She received a two-year long suspended prison term at Southwark Crown Court after admitting financial crime.

The outcome represents a lengthy process and marks a huge win for the victims who came forward, the authorities and prosecutors.

How the Inquiry Began

The first knowledge of the company emerged during the mid-2016. I was working in the research department of a broadcasting service, creating current affairs shows.

A colleague pointed out that his parent had taken over the ownership of a timeshare apartment in a European resort and, after decades of vacations, had started seeking to get out of the contract.

It's worth mentioning how common holiday ownership had become with English tourists in the eighties and nineties.

Vacation properties permitted families to access the same accommodation annually, or swap their vacation periods with fellow investors who had properties in alternative destinations. About 600,000 vacation seekers seized that opportunity.

The early surge was paired with a many reports about rip-off merchants deceptively promoting investments. They were regularly featured on public interest shows.

The standard holiday ownership agreement bound owners for long periods.

By 2016, those investors who had experienced their assigned property in the sun for a long time were ageing, and many were attempting to wave goodbye to their vacation investments.

Several had health issues and were unable to visit their units. A few just believed they'd enjoyed sufficient use from them. And others had deceased, in numerous instances bequeathing their family members to take over the agreements - including their annual payments and maintenance fees.

The Covert Probe Develops

This was the situation the friend's mum had found herself. She looked online for options and found SMT, a firm whose online presence promised to get her out of her agreement.

But, having submitted funds and booked a meeting with them, her loved ones had doubts.

Further research revealed hundreds of people reporting they had paid money and received no benefit from the service. In fact, they had been left out of pocket. Significant sums.

The investigative unit began investigating what was going on. It was rapidly apparent that there were some shady characters working within the timeshare resale sector.

An attorney had hundreds of individual complaints preparing to take action against the company.

Reporters contacted individuals who had dealt with the organization and they all told the same story. They believed the business would acquire their investment away from them but when they participated in a session (for which they made an advance payment) they were advised there was no potential buyers.

Instead, they were persuaded - actually pressured - to invest additional funds purchasing "the company's points system", named after the business's umbrella group, the parent organization.

The nature of these rewards was not exactly clear. They appeared to be a form of credit, providing reduced-price holidays and benefits and retail offers.

And they were reportedly "tradable" with other owners, at a future date.

Paying cash immediately would result in an future return that would offset the firm's costs and leave the property owner ahead financially, liberated eventually from their burdensome deal.

An unbelievable offer? Certainly, that proved correct.

A 'Bait-and-Switch Scam'

Assuming these reports were accurate, this was a large-scale fraud.

The technique is termed a "deceptive marketing."

A business - in this case the organization - "lures the client by advertising a particular product only to then state it cannot be provided, directing the client towards an alternative, lesser product or service.

That's illegal. Possessing all the evidence we had assembled, we presented the rationale to discreetly video one of the organization's sessions.

This takes commitment, energy, and strong justifications for why this is the only way to gather the evidence needed to prove wrongdoing.

Armed with that permission, our small team set up a appointment with one of the company's representatives in the English town.

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