Sell My Timeshare Boss and 13 Others Jailed for 7.5 Years, Ordered to Repay €30 Million
The boss of Sell My Timeshare and about a dozen others have been sentenced to seven and a half years in prison and ordered to repay €30 million to victims of their Tenerife timeshare scam, following a BBC investigation that sparked a nine-year legal battle.
The boss of Sell My Timeshare, Mark Rowe, and about a dozen others have been sentenced to seven and a half years in prison by the British justice system. They have been in jail since last August. They also have to pay 30 million euros back to the people they scammed through their timeshare business in Tenerife. Eva Gutiérrez, the lawyer representing a thousand victims, sees this sentence as a positive step towards getting compensation for them.
This news was reported by the BBC. Nine years ago, the BBC ran a hidden camera investigation where reporters pretended to be interested in buying timeshare apartments in Tenerife.
That report caused a big reaction and led to an investigation. It has now resulted in 14 people being found guilty of defrauding almost 30 million euros from 3,500 apartment owners in southern Tenerife. Most of these victims were between 60 and 80 years old, and some lost as much as 12,000 euros.
The lawyer, who works for the law firm Canarian Legal Alliance (CLA), mentioned that they filed a criminal complaint in 2019 which was initially rejected. In that complaint, they asked the Public Prosecutor's Office to consider prosecuting the owners of companies like Silverpoint. These companies already have final civil court rulings against them totalling 12 million euros.
The lawyer, whose firm is based in Arguineguín, said she wasn't aware of the TV program at the time, nor the name of the company involved. She explained that this is common because many companies operate under different names.
"The issue is that these companies often don't really exist anymore, their leaders can't be found, and around 70 of these companies are registered in tax havens," she said.
Eva Gutiérrez also recalled that the Udyco (a National Police unit that fights organised crime) investigated this group. They put together 19 volumes of evidence, and the General Treasury of Social Security (TGSS) also helped with the investigation.
In July 2020, the Public Prosecutor's Office filed a complaint for alleged fraud, including hiding assets to avoid paying debts and procedural fraud. This complaint was temporarily dismissed.