How Undercover Filming Revealed a £28 Million Holiday Ownership Scam

It has been described as a major scams of its kind in the UK.

Altogether 14 people have been sentenced for their role in a £28m conspiracy to cheat more than 3,500 holiday ownership investors.

The affected individuals were desperate to exit age-old holiday ownership agreements and tried to find help.

The majority were from 60 and 80. Over 500 of them surrendered over £10,000, and one individual paid more than £80,000.

Those targeted were exposed to aggressive presentations lasting up to six hours. They were left out of pocket, holding valueless fake "points" and still trapped in high-priced holiday ownership agreements they could no longer use.

The Business Behind the Deception

The firm at the core of the scheme was Sell My Timeshare (SMT). They accepted clients' cash to support the directors' luxurious lifestyle of prestigious schooling, luxury homes and personal aircraft.

The man at the top of the organization, Mark Rowe, was sentenced to a seven and a half year prison term in January for conspiracy to defraud.

On Friday, his wife Nicola was one of the final three to hear their sentences.

She received a two-year long suspended jail sentence at Southwark Crown Court after admitting money laundering.

It has been a lengthy process and signifies a major victory for the people who spoke out, the authorities and legal representatives.

The Way the Investigation Started

The first knowledge of the firm came in the summer of 2016. I was working in the reporting team of a media outlet, making current affairs programmes.

A colleague pointed out that his mum had assumed the use of a vacation unit in Spain and, after decades of vacations, had started seeking to exit the agreement.

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

Timeshares permitted families to occupy the equivalent unit annually, or exchange their time slots with other owners who had units in different locations. Roughly 600,000 vacation seekers accepted that chance.

The initial boom was linked to a lot of accounts about rip-off merchants mis-selling properties. They became a staple on investigative shows.

The standard vacation property deal bound owners for long periods.

At that time, those owners who had enjoyed their guaranteed place in the resort for 20 or 30 years were advancing in years, and a large proportion were looking to end their association to their holiday properties.

A number had reduced ability to travel and were unable to visit their properties. A few just believed they'd enjoyed sufficient use from them. And a portion had deceased, in many cases passing on their loved ones to assume the deals - plus their annual payments and service charges.

The Investigation Progresses

It was at this point the relative had been placed. She browsed the internet for solutions and came across the company, a enterprise whose digital platform promised to terminate her contract.

But, having paid a fee and booked a meeting with them, her family had doubts.

Additional investigation uncovered hundreds of people claiming they had paid money and achieved no result in return. Indeed, they had been left out of pocket. A lot of it.

The reporting group started looking into what was going on. It was rapidly apparent that there were questionable operators active in the timeshare resale sector.

One lawyer had numerous client reports aiming to litigate against SMT.

Reporters contacted individuals who had dealt with the organization and they each reported similar experiences. They thought the business would buy their property off them but when they attended a meeting (for which they made an advance payment) they were told there was no market for their property.

Rather, they were encouraged - indeed pressured - to commit further cash investing in "Monster Rewards", named after the outfit's parent company, the parent organization.

The precise definition was not exactly clear. They appeared to be a type of exchange medium, offering reduced-price holidays and services and retail offers.

And they were apparently "exchangeable with additional holders, some time down the line.

Committing funds up front now would produce an future return that would offset the firm's costs and allow the investor in profit, freed at last from their pesky deal.

An unbelievable offer? Well, yes.

A 'Deceptive Scheme'

Assuming these reports were correct, this was a major deception.

This is known as a "bait-and-switch."

Someone - in this case the organization - "baits" the client by marketing a defined offering but then to say that's not available, steering the customer in the direction of an alternative, lesser offering.

That's illegal. Armed with all the evidence we had assembled, we argued to secretly film one of the organization's sessions.

The process requires commitment, energy, and compelling reasons for why this is the exclusive approach to gather the information necessary to confirm deceptive practices.

Once authorized, our limited crew arranged a consultation with one of the organization's staff in the English town.

Acting as a member of the public hoping to help his mother released from her timeshare contract|holiday ownership agreement