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Prosecutors have labeled it as among the biggest frauds of its kind in the UK.

A total of 14 defendants have been sentenced for their role in a £28 million scheme to cheat in excess of 3,500 vacation property investors.

The affected individuals were keen to get out of decades-old holiday ownership agreements and tried to find help.

A large number were in the age range of 60 and 80. More than 500 of them parted with in excess of £10,000, and one paid more than £80,000.

Those affected were exposed to aggressive consultations lasting up to six hours. They were left out of pocket, possessing useless fake "points" and remained bound by costly timeshare contracts they frequently were unable to use.

The Company Behind the Scam

The company at the heart of the scheme was Sell My Timeshare (SMT). They collected customers' funds to finance the directors' lavish standard of living of exclusive education, millionaire mansions and exclusive air travel.

The individual at the top of the firm, the company director, was sentenced to a seven-and-half year jail time in January for conspiracy to defraud.

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

She was given a 24-month suspended prison term at the London court after pleading guilty to illegal fund handling.

This has been a extended wait and signifies a major victory for the victims who came forward, the law enforcement and the Crown.

How the Probe Started

The first knowledge of the company came in the that particular year. I was working in the reporting team of a media outlet, making current affairs shows.

A acquaintance pointed out that his mum had inherited the use of a vacation unit in the Spanish coast and, after long-term use, had started seeking to get out of the deal.

It's worth mentioning how popular vacation properties had evolved with British holidaymakers in the last decades of the 20th century.

Timeshares permitted families to occupy the same accommodation each season, or swap their vacation periods with other owners who had properties in different locations. About 600,000 holiday enthusiasts took up that opportunity.

The early surge was accompanied by a many reports about dishonest operators fraudulently marketing properties. They appeared frequently on consumer TV programmes.

The common holiday ownership agreement locked buyers for long periods.

By 2016, those investors who had enjoyed their regular accommodation in the sunshine for decades were advancing in years, and a large proportion were hoping to say farewell to their timeshares.

A number had reduced ability to travel and found it difficult to access their properties. Others just thought they'd achieved their goals from them. And a portion had died, in many cases leaving their heirs to take over the deals - along with their annual payments and maintenance fees.

The Undercover Operation Develops

It was at this point the family member had ended up. She browsed the internet for options and discovered SMT, a firm whose website promised to get her out of her contract.

However, having paid a fee and scheduled a consultation with them, her family had doubts.

Further research uncovered many victims claiming they had paid money and got nothing from the service. In fact, they had suffered financially. A lot of it.

The investigative unit started looking into what was happening. It was rapidly apparent that there were dubious individuals working within the timeshare resale sector.

A legal professional had hundreds of individual complaints aiming to litigate against the organization.

The team interviewed individuals who had used the firm and they each reported similar experiences. They believed the company would acquire their investment off them but when they participated in a session (for which they submitted funds initially) they were told there was no market for their property.

Rather, they were pushed - indeed compelled - to spend more money acquiring "the firm's incentive scheme", associated with the organization's holding firm, the overarching entity.

What exactly these were was rather ambiguous. They appeared to be a form of credit, offering discount travel and benefits and retail offers.

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

Investing money immediately would lead to an eventual payoff that would pay for the firm's costs and leave the timeshare holder with a gain, released finally from their burdensome deal.

An unrealistic promise? Certainly, that proved correct.

A 'Deceptive Scheme'

Based on these descriptions were accurate, this was a major deception.

It's what is called a "bait-and-switch."

An operator - in this case SMT - "lures the client by marketing a defined offering and then state it cannot be provided, steering the client in the direction of a different, lower-quality option.

That's illegal. Equipped with all the evidence we had assembled, we argued to discreetly video one of the organization's sessions.

The process requires time, effort, and clear arguments for why this is the only way to obtain the data necessary to confirm deceptive practices.

Once authorized, our compact group set up a consultation with one of the firm's agents in the English town.

Posing as a ordinary individual hoping to help his mother out of her timeshare contract|holiday ownership agreement