My name is Adrián Díaz-Saavedra Morales and I represent Canarian Legal Alliance, a law firm based in Gran Canaria.
We are currently representing over 233 families who are suing Resort Properties Group (now called Silverpoint) for timeshare fraud in a criminal class action in Tenerife, Spain, and I am writing to you in the name of theses 233 families.
Most of our clients are British citizens and the value of the disputes is over 15 million Euros – an amount which I believe makes this one of the biggest timeshare frauds/scams in Europe.
It was over 3 years ago when we first submitted evidence to the court in Tenerife. In the last 3 years the courts have done very little to progress the case which leads to believe there is a serious problem in the judicial system in Tenerife.
Because of this we are now focusing our attention in the UK as we believe the only way to progress this case is if the UK authorities become involved and on behalf of all the UK citizens we represent we would request that you open up an investigation against this fraudulent company.
From our clients statements the method of extracting funds from them is almost identical – in every case they gave money to Resort Properties believing they were investing in foreign property (Not buying additional timeshare weeks which was in fact what they were actually doing)
Every one of the victims were promised the same thing – the amount paid was an “investment” – each year these “investments” would yield at least a 15% return and that there would be absolutely no problem selling the “investment” when they wanted too – in fact they were told by Resort Properties that they would even buy the “investment” back from them at any time as its resale value was so high.
To fund this investment a lot of our clients were coerced into taking out finance with Barclays Finance. Incredibly some of our clients were 75 years plus at the time of signing agreements with Barclays Finance for 15 year terms and in all our clients cases there was never a representative of Barclays there when they signed the agreement.
Of course, our clients never received a single penny from their “investments” and when they returned to Resort Properties to ask why they were fobbed off with various excuses. But what is more alarmingly is that they were coerced into investing even more money in order to “protect¨ their original investment?
On average each of our clients paid on average some 50,000 pounds for an “investment” that did not exist.
In our criminal action we have added Barclays Partner Finance to the proceedings for civil responsibility for their role in providing finance without undertaking the proper due diligence.
Not only do we have written testimonies of all our clients we also have a written testimony from an ex-employee confirming how they took advantage of the clients and sold them something they knew did not exist.
As you can imagine over the last 3 years we have gathered lots of evidence to support this claim – evidence we will be more than happy to share with you.
With regards verifying the information then below is just 5 clients who have already agreed to talk to others and the police.
Mr. Anthony Corbidge Tel.:TCA have been given the contact telephone numbers
Mr James Aucutt Tel.: TCA have been given the contact telephone numbers
Mrs Brenda Harrison Tel.:TCA have been given the contact telephone numbers
Mr. Peter Davenport Tel.:TCA have been given the contact telephone numbers
Mrs Olwyn Danby Tel.: TCA have been given the contact telephone numbers
If you do open up an investigation then of course we will give you the contact details of all the other clients we are representing.
I would like to stress the fact that we are only representing a small portion of victims of this company. This company continues to trade and continues to defraud clients on a daily basis so the sooner we can stop this better.
I would welcome the opportunity to come and see you in person to explain in more detail the facts of the case – as I said previously this is investment fraud on a huge scale.
I believe there must be some action the UK authorities, and an association like yours could help in order to protect consumers and to assist us in putting a stop to this company’s fraudulent activities.
Adrián Díaz-Saavedra Morales
Col. 5379 Icalpa (Bar Association Las Palmas)
Tel. (+34) 928 185 028/606 071 986
Fax. (+34) 928 152 842
For more information regarding this article or assistance in any other timeshare related issues please contact the TCA on 01908 881058 or email: info@TimeshareConsumerAssociation.org.uk