Two men, Alan Sharp, 65, and James Barrass, 37, have admitted their hand in a timeshare scam which involved money laundering offences during a two-year period.
The two men stole around £850,000 from hundreds of trusting timeshare owners.
However, they did not work alone. Five other suspected have also admitted playing part of the scam to commit fraud and two others admitted offences of fraudulent acts.
Alan Sharp, of Constitutional Hill, Norwich was due to stand trial at Stafford Crown Court last week, however, before the start of the trail, he changed his plea to guilty. Sharp was accused of being involved in a fraudulent arrangement, which he knew to be fraudulent, aiding the acquisition and the control of criminal monies for, and on behalf of, Brian Carr.
James Barrass, of Manby Road, Norwich, had had a court hearing prior to Sharp’s where he had pleaded guilty to the same charge.
The scammers claimed to have buyers looking for timeshares throughout Spain and other areas of the Mediterranean; this was set up by Brian Carr in his hometown back in 2012, after which they moved into Bromsgrove and Redditch in Worcestershire, this is where Carr and most of the offenders lived.
In the same year Carr, alias ‘Stephen Blake’ ran the business, which they called ‘Simple Property Marketing Solutions’ which operated from Cavell House in Norwich.
Carr later expanded his team, which included his younger brother Daniel Carr, Daniel was appointed as manager and was responsible for the cold calling to timeshare owners.
Primarily Brian Carr approached Barrass in order for him to provide the card payment machine facility throughout the scam, this being Bullwell Services in Norwich. The payment machine took payments for the so-called ‘fees’ paid by the unsuspecting clients.
Barrass lost his chip and pin facility, this is where Sharp became involved. Carr approached Sharp to provide the same service, through Pro-Bio Markets Ltd, also in Norwich.
Andrew Wheeler QC, the prosecutor, stated that timeshare owners were approached between 2012 and 2015 and where offered the professional services of Simple Property Marketing Solutions to assist with selling their timeshare and that they had buyers waiting, all they had to do was pay upfront fees for the notary “clients paid between £600 and £1,500 hoping that their timeshare would be sold, but it was all dishonest and just a serious lies,” he said.
The court heard how more than £80,000 had passed through Sharp’s account and then onto the leaders of the scam, from the monies which passed through his account he made a profit of around £10,000.
Mr Wheeler of Mercia police led the investigation. He stated that upon investigation more than 465 people had been deceived, unfortunately, they were mainly elderly and vulnerable, and the investigation proved to show that at least £850,000 was scammed and taken by the scammers.
Sharps representative Peter Cooper, defended Sharp by saying that while his client had had his suspicions, he was not aware of the full extent of the fraud. Mr Wheeler said the prosecution did not accept Sharp’s basis of plea.
Judge Jonathan Gosling has chosen to adjourn Sharp’s case whilst further reports are collated.
Prior hearings for Brian Carr, 29, Daniel Carr, 24, Craig Walker, 27, Steven Cross, 37, all from Worcestershire, and Dawn Gingell, 55, from Hampshire, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud.
In court 10th October 2017 Matthew Barker, 24, of Bromsgrove, and Brendon Hicks, 27, of Redditch, were also due to face trial, however, they decided to admit to their part of the fraudulent act.
The sentencing of all nine defendants, along with any trials of the issue over the defendant’s basis for the plea, will take place over three days at Stafford Crown Court later in the year.
All involved were given bail on a conditional basis.
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