A fraudster couple spent £31,500 on an LS Lowry sketch and lived a luxury lifestyle funded by a holiday investment scam that defrauded over 3,000 people of £28m.
The conspiracy, led by Mark Rowe, operated as Sell My Timeshare (SMT), targeting owners desperate to relinquish properties. Investigators said Rowe “put victims up in hotels” and “created fake virtual offices and fake personas” in the fraud, which led to 14 convictions under Operation Destin.
After being lured to meetings at SMT’s Bournemouth, York, Stratford-upon-Avon or Tenerife-based offices under the premise of selling their timeshares, victims instead “endured high-pressure sales meetings, which often lasted up to six hours”, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.
The meetings saw victims pushed to trade in their timeshares and make an additional payment for the company’s “monster credits” scheme, which promised discounts on holidays and shopping, as well as the opportunity to trade them with other customers on a dedicated platform.
In many cases, victims took out loans to purchase the credits, typically investing around £8,000, the CPS said.
Victims would later discover that not only were the credits worthless, but in most cases, they still owned and incurred the costs of their timeshares.
In total, 3,583 victims across the UK were defrauded out of £28.1m, with the highest individual loss being £80,000.
Investigators added that nearly 500 victims lost more than £10,000 and that the “vast majority” of victims were between 60 and 80 years old, with some in their nineties.
Senior investigating officer Peter Highway said a “lot of the money was spent on luxury” by managing director Rowe and his wife, Nicola Rowe, who acted as the company’s finance director.
Investigators said the Rowes spent more than £110,000 on private school fees, a house in Hampshire with stables valued at £2.4m, and £26,000 on one private jet trip to Tenerife.
They added that £8m was received into Mark and Nicola Rowe’s personal account, with £185,000 spent at art galleries, including £31,500 for a pencil sketch by LS Lowry.
Rowe, of Los Blanquitos in Tenerife, was sentenced in January to seven-and-a-half years’ imprisonment after being found guilty of conspiracy to defraud.
His wife, also of Los Blanquitos in Tenerife, will be sentenced on Friday at Southwark Crown Court after pleading guilty to money laundering.
A total of 14 people were convicted following four trials held over two years at Southwark Crown Court – with reporting restrictions in place until Nicola Rowe’s guilty plea.
In a victim impact statement that was read to court during one of the trials, a victim said: “I’m now supposed to be retired and enjoying life, but as a result of being a victim of Mark Rowe’s fraud, my quality of life has been reduced to a struggle – I’m unable to afford to even pay my own rent.
“I’ve been a successful businessman all of my life, but feel that I’ve let my wife down, and I cannot see how I can put this right in the time that we have left.”
Mr Highway, from the South West Regional Organised Crime Unit, which ran the six-year investigation, said: “The fact so many people were defrauded in this case reflects the lengths Mark Rowe went to both to lure victims to meetings with his criminal sales team and continually invent new methods to deceive them.
“He paid for TV and magazine ads, put victims up in hotels, and even created fake virtual offices and fake personas.”
CPS specialist prosecutor Gayle Ramsey said it had been “a living nightmare” for the victims.
Ms Ramsey said: “These defendants acted in a completely selfish and manipulative manner to make huge sums for themselves and exploited timeshare owners, many of whom were elderly.
“They provided victims with the false hope of disposing of timeshares in exchange for a valuable investment when in reality they were each left tens of thousands of pounds out of pocket after purchasing something which was worthless.”
Ms Ramsey added that the CPS would seek to pursue any money or assets gained by the defendants through their offending.
Following the first trial from October 2023 to October last year, several people were found guilty of conspiracy to defraud including Jodi Beard, 43, of El Roque, Tenerife, who was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment suspended for two years, and Paul Harrison, 55, of Weymouth, who was sentenced to four-and-a-half years’ imprisonment.
Also found guilty of conspiracy to defraud were Nihat Paul Salih, 57, of Poole, Dorset, who was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment; and Lisa Salih, 56, of Poole, who was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment suspended for two years.
Credits administrator Samantha Macaulay, 52, of San Miguel De Abona, Tenerife, was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment suspended for 18 months after being found guilty of fraud by false representation. Macaulay was found not guilty of conspiracy to defraud.
Following the second trial from October last year to February, Simon Walker, 58, of Costa Adeje in Tenerife, was sentenced to four-and-a-half years’ imprisonment and Joanne Physick, 46, of Los Christianos Arona, Tenerife, was sentenced to two-and-a-half years’ imprisonment after being found guilty of conspiracy to defraud.
After the third trial in June and July, David Taylor, 65, of East Yorkshire, was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment.
Joanne Taylor, 53, of East Yorkshire, was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment suspended for two years and Lee Evans, 51, of Preston, was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment suspended for two years after both pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation.
Two people who worked as “senior client advisers”, Barrie Fox, 69, of Worcester, and Josephine Cuthill-Fox, 60, of Worcester, will be sentenced on Friday after also pleading guilty to fraud by false representation.
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