A fraudster couple who spent £31,500 on an LS Lowry sketch and lived a luxury lifestyle have been exposed after defrauding over 3,000 people of £28m in a holiday investment scam. The conspiracy, led by Mark Rowe, operated as Sell My Timeshare (SMT), targeting owners desperate to sell their timeshares.
Victims were lured to meetings at SMT's offices in Bournemouth, York, Stratford-upon-Avon, or Tenerife under the pretence of selling their timeshares. Instead, they endured high-pressure sales meetings lasting up to six hours, where they were pushed to trade in their timeshares and make additional payments for the company's 'monster credits' scheme. The scheme promised discounts on holidays and shopping, but the credits were worthless, and victims often still owned their timeshares.
In total, 3,583 victims across the UK lost £28.1m, with the highest individual loss being £80,000. Nearly 500 victims lost more than £10,000, and the vast majority were aged between 60 and 80, with some in their nineties. Investigators said Mark Rowe and his wife Nicola, who acted as finance director, spent over £110,000 on private school fees, a £2.4m house in Hampshire with stables, and £26,000 on a private jet trip to Tenerife. £8m was received into their personal account, with £185,000 spent at art galleries, including £31,500 for a pencil sketch by LS Lowry.
Mark Rowe, of Los Blanquitos in Tenerife, was sentenced in January to seven-and-a-half years' imprisonment for conspiracy to defraud. His wife, also of Los Blanquitos, 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 over two years, with reporting restrictions in place until Nicola Rowe's guilty plea.
Senior investigating officer Peter Highway said: 'The fact so many people were defrauded reflects the lengths Mark Rowe went to both to lure victims to meetings 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 described it as 'a living nightmare' for victims, adding that the defendants 'acted in a completely selfish and manipulative manner to make huge sums for themselves and exploited timeshare owners, many of whom were elderly.'
