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It has been described as one of the largest frauds of its type in the UK.

In all 14 individuals have been convicted for their involvement in a £28m plot to defraud in excess of 3,500 timeshare owners.

The victims were keen to terminate age-old timeshare contracts and tried to find help.

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

Those targeted were subjected to intense consultations continuing for six hours. They were out of money, holding worthless fake "rewards" and still trapped in expensive holiday ownership agreements they could no longer use.

The Company Central to the Scam

The company at the heart of the scam was the organization in question. They collected people's money to finance the proprietors' opulent way of life of private schools, luxury homes and personal aircraft.

The man at the helm of the organization, the company director, was handed a seven-and-half year sentence in January for conspiracy to defraud.

In the latest development, his spouse Nicola was among the last group to hear their sentences.

She was given a 24-month suspended prison term at the judicial venue after admitting illegal fund handling.

It has been a extended wait and signifies a major victory for the individuals who testified, the law enforcement and legal representatives.

The Way the Inquiry Began

The first knowledge of SMT emerged during the that particular year. I was working in the investigations unit of a news organization, producing investigative features.

A acquaintance noted that his mum had inherited the use of a vacation unit in the Spanish coast and, after years of holidays, had started seeking to get out of the deal.

It should be noted how common holiday ownership had grown with British holidaymakers in the 1980s and 1990s.

Timeshares permitted people to use the equivalent unit each season, or exchange their vacation periods with other owners who had properties in different locations. Approximately 600,000 holiday enthusiasts accepted that chance.

The initial boom was linked to a lot of reports about rip-off merchants deceptively promoting units. They were regularly featured on investigative TV programmes.

The common vacation property deal tied investors in for decades.

At that time, those owners who had used their assigned property in the sun for 20 or 30 years were getting older, and many were attempting to wave goodbye to their vacation investments.

Some had health issues and couldn't get to their units. Others just felt they'd got all they wanted from them. And some had passed away, in numerous instances leaving their family members to assume the agreements - plus their annual payments and upkeep costs.

The Undercover Operation Unfolds

This was the situation the relative had been placed. She browsed the internet for solutions and came across SMT, a business whose online presence promised to get her out of her contract.

However, having submitted funds and booked a meeting with them, her loved ones became suspicious.

Further research uncovered hundreds of people saying they had submitted funds and received no benefit in return. In fact, they had been left out of pocket. Substantial amounts.

Our team commenced probing what was occurring. It soon emerged that there were some shady characters operating in the holiday ownership market.

A legal professional had numerous client reports waiting to sue the company.

We spoke to people who had used the firm and they all told the same story. They thought the firm would buy their property off them but when they attended a meeting (for which they made an advance payment) they were advised there was no potential buyers.

In place of that, they were pushed - in fact pressured - to spend more money acquiring "the company's points system", associated with the organization's holding firm, the overarching entity.

The nature of these rewards was rather ambiguous. They appeared to be a form of credit, providing cheaper vacations and benefits and shopping deals.

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

Investing money up front now would lead to an long-term benefit that would pay for the company's charges and allow the property owner with a gain, liberated eventually from their troublesome agreement.

Too good to be true? Indeed, it was.

A 'Deceptive Scheme'

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

The technique is termed a "bait-and-switch."

An operator - here SMT - "attracts the client by marketing a defined offering and then claim it is unavailable, directing the individual in the direction of another, inferior product or service.

Such practices are unlawful. Possessing all the accounts we had collected, we made the case to secretly film one of the company's meetings.

The process requires dedication, work, and clear arguments for why this is the exclusive approach to collect the information necessary to prove wrongdoing.

Once authorized, our compact group organized a consultation with one of the firm's agents in the location.

Posing as a potential client wanting to help his mother released from her timeshare contract|holiday ownership agreement