Fraudsters who conned elderly people out of their life savings have ruined lives

A gang was this week jailed for 32 years at Birmingham Crown Court for a despicable two-year timeshare con

The scam centered on timeshare properties in Spain (Corbis)

Crooks who target the elderly could not be more unscrupulous or callous. Seeing them as easy victims, they deliberately seek out people in their 70s and 80s who are more likely to be trusting and fall for cons.

A gang of fraudsters were this week jailed for 32 years at Birmingham Crown Court for ripping off pensioners. That may sound like a sizable term, but collectively it was nowhere near enough.

Up to 38 older people were swindled out of cash in the despicable two-year timeshare con, including one victim who lost £250,000 and another who was left suicidal after being tricked.

The scam was nothing particularly new. It involved the setting up of two dodgy companies, Sun Property Solutions and Avon Client Services, in 2011. The victims owned timeshare properties and the crooks, pretending to be from a legitimate firm, cold-called them with an offer to buy them out.

For many older people left with timeshare homes that may have become increasingly expensive but hard to make use of, offers like this can seem a godsend. The fraudsters preyed on their victims' hopes of finally being free of their financial commitment but told them they had to pay tax and legal fees, while at the same time promising an increased payout on their investments.

The whole thing was bogus but the crooks persuaded one victim to hand over £165,000 after giving him "promise after promise" that he would get his timeshare sale. His mistake lost him his life savings and he later separated from his wife after 28 years of marriage.

The biggest loser was a woman who was wheelchair-bound. She had suffered from multiple sclerosis since 1983 and could not get out of bed without help. She told the gang about her illness but the fraudsters had been "utterly ruthless" in pursuing her, ignoring her requests for them to stop, the court heard.

Judge Roderick Henderson said: "The majority of advance-fee frauds exploit the greed of the victims, but in this case the victims already owned their timeshares and simply wanted to sell them on at a reasonable price.

"It involved the skilful and deliberate manipulation of vulnerable people. It is difficult to understate the cynicism and ruthlessness of this operation."

In short, the greedy crooks manipulated elderly people for financial gain and, in many cases, ruined their lives in the process. But with a network of rogues recruited to allow their bank accounts to be used to launder the cash, the bulk of the proceeds remain hidden.

And with individual sentences ranging up to a maximum of eight years, those behind the scam will probably be out of jail in less than four years while their victims will still be trying to cope with the results of the fraud. Justice sometimes doesn't seem heavy enough.

But the case should send a reminder to all of us that cold-callers are almost always crooks who prey on the elderly. If you have older family or neighbours, take the time to warn them to be wary.