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It has been described as among the biggest deceptions of its kind in the Britain.

In all 14 people have been convicted for their role in a £28m plot to swindle in excess of 3,500 holiday ownership holders.

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

The majority were from 60 and 80. More than 500 of them lost in excess of £10,000, and a single victim transferred over £80,000.

Those targeted were exposed to intense presentations lasting up to six hours. They were left out of pocket, owning useless fake "rewards" and still bound by high-priced vacation property deals they could no longer use.

The Company Behind the Fraud

The business at the centre of the fraud was Sell My Timeshare (SMT). They accepted clients' cash to finance the directors' lavish standard of living of exclusive education, millionaire mansions and exclusive air travel.

The man at the head of the firm, the company director, was handed a 90-month sentence in January for fraudulent conspiracy.

Recently, his partner one of the co-defendants was one of the final three to learn their fate.

She was given a 24-month suspended prison term at Southwark Crown Court after pleading guilty to illegal fund handling.

The outcome represents a long time coming and marks a significant success for the victims who came forward, the police and the Crown.

The Way the Investigation Was Initiated

I first heard about SMT was in the mid-2016. I was working in the reporting team of a media outlet, producing current affairs features.

A friend mentioned that his mother had assumed the rights of a holiday property in the Spanish coast and, after decades of vacations, had commenced searching to exit the deal.

It is important to recall how popular timeshares had become with UK travelers in the 1980s and 1990s.

Vacation properties permitted families to occupy the equivalent unit every year, or trade their weeks with additional holders who had units in different locations. About 600,000 sun-lovers took up that option.

The initial boom was paired with a lot of stories about dishonest operators fraudulently marketing units. They appeared frequently on investigative broadcasts.

The typical holiday ownership agreement bound owners for many years.

At that time, those owners who had used their regular accommodation in the sun for a long time were getting older, and many were hoping to say farewell to their timeshares.

Some had health issues and found it difficult to access their apartments. Others just thought they'd got all they wanted from them. And others had passed away, in many cases bequeathing their heirs to take over the contracts - including their annual payments and upkeep costs.

The Undercover Operation Progresses

It was at this point the relative had been placed. She searched the web for answers and discovered the company, a firm whose website claimed to get her out of her deal.

However, having paid a fee and arranged an appointment with them, her relatives had doubts.

Subsequent checking revealed many victims reporting they had paid money and received no benefit from the service. In fact, they had suffered financially. A lot of it.

The investigative unit started looking into what was going on. It quickly became clear that there were some shady characters working within the timeshare resale sector.

A legal professional had many grievance cases waiting to sue the organization.

We spoke to people who had engaged the company and they collectively described identical situations. They believed the company would acquire their investment away from them but when they attended a meeting (for which they paid up front) they were told there was no market for their property.

Rather, they were pushed - in fact coerced - to invest additional funds purchasing "the firm's incentive scheme", named after the outfit's parent company, the overarching entity.

What exactly these were was not exactly clear. They seemed similar to a form of credit, providing cheaper vacations and benefits and consumer discounts.

And they were seemingly "transferable with additional holders, at a future date.

Paying cash at the time would lead to an long-term benefit that would offset the firm's costs and leave the timeshare holder with a gain, released finally from their burdensome agreement.

An unrealistic promise? Indeed, it was.

A 'Bait-and-Switch Scam'

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

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

An operator - here the company - "attracts the client by marketing a specific service only to then state it cannot be provided, directing the client to another, inferior option.

This is against the law. Possessing all the testimony we had collected, we made the case to discreetly video one of the firm's consultations.

The process requires time, effort, and compelling reasons for why this is the exclusive approach to collect the information required to demonstrate illegal activity.

Armed with that permission, our compact group set up a appointment with one of the organization's staff in the English town.

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