Below story / description of events is a resume of the emails we received from consumers who have travelled to Tenerife taking up the invitation of Island Breaks.
An invitation to attend a meeting where they will discuss a refund claim, from money paid to other companies in the past.
If you ever wondered why on earth you need to travel the whole way to Tenerife to discuss a claim supposedly done through the Consumer Act, which is a UK Protection law, don’t miss out on the testimonial given below.
“At the beginning of 2017 we were cold called from a woman from Island Breaks claiming that her Company specialised in reclaiming back money spent on miss-sold time-share.
She said that her Company could guarantee to get all my timeshare money back within 60 days from the date of the submission. They worked on a no win no fee basis and only charged 20% on the successful completion of my claim, once the money was in my Bank account.
All we had to do was to accept their invitation of a free week holiday in Tenerife for my wife and myself. They would pay for the accommodation, half board and Airport transfer; I would have to book and pay for our own flights.
Too good to be true I thought what was the catch I asked, “no catch” she assured me all we needed to do was to attend a 3-hour meeting in Tenerife and hand over copies of any documents. Why Tenerife I asked? “Because of the tax laws in the UK” she said if I made the claim in the UK it would be classed as a Capital Gain and we would be charged at least 42% tax.
We specifically enquired would we be asked to pay any monies up front in order to register our claim etc. or be asked to buy any other form of holidays or time-share etc. She assured I wouldn’t and that all we would be required to do would attend a meeting with an Advisor in Tenerife in order for them to process our claim. I asked her to confirm this in writing, which she did via an email see, copy attached. I thought what the hell it’s a free week’s holiday in Tenerife at least so I accepted.
So we travelled to Tenerife and waited for our appointment.
A representative picked us up from the hotel and drove us to what I thought was a remote town. As we were driving he told us a story about his boss, he said he had a timeshare in Spain and was also swindled, he tried to surrender his timeshare and get his money back but couldn’t. Then while on holiday in Spain he met this girl from Poland who just happened to be a lawyer. After being with her for a few days he told her about his time-share, she said that she could get his money back for him. To cut a long story short she did and he was so happy and so angry with the timeshare Company that she and her partner set up a Company in order to help others with similar problems.
The representative took us to a café opposite their offices and ordered us drinks while he had a look at the documents I had brought with me. He then took the documents away to be photo copied and came back with a form, which he filled in and asked us various questions. He went away again and later returned with a woman who was supposed to be the head of claims / Office manager.
She said that she had read our time-share agreement and it had been miss- sold to us and that she would take on our claim.
She went away and the representative then took us to the other side of the road where the offices were situated. There were 5 shops in a row all next to one another and all travel Agents with different names all owned he claimed by the same owner and his girlfriend who had offices in Poland.
He showed us around and he took us into one office where there were 4 members of staff were sitting at their desks. He introduced us to each one stating that they handled the claims on a commission only basis. There were files all over the place and lots of letters from various banks saying that they accepted the claim and were refunding monies to peoples Bank accounts, which were blanked out. One staff member claimed that the quickest they had completed a claim was within 33 days and they hoped to beat that record. I asked each staff member what was their success rate and each said 100%, each claim they made was successful.
Then we were taken to the office of the representative where he explained that the real business was travel and that their Travel Companies could offer us holidays at a guaranteed discount of 30%. He went onto say that “when not if” they got us our money back wouldn’t we be interested in booking our holidays through them.
He continued with his talk going over the same thing over and over again saying so you don’t want your money back and you don’t want cheap holidays?
Then another representative came into the room and went over the same thing again avoiding any direct questions. He said you have to pay £4,000.00 now by credit card (so you are protected) and further £4,000.00 in a month’s time.
I asked what was the money for he said the first £4,000.00 was to register my claim and the second was to process it, I protested saying we were assured that this wouldn’t cost us anything. He said it doesn’t you will be contacted back in the UK by a person who will arrange for £8,000.00 loan to go back into your Bank. You can then pay off your credit card and the £4,000.00 so you haven’t used any of your own money. By the time the first payment was due you would have your claim money back and you could pay the £8,000.00 back, when I asked who was responsible for the loan he avoided the question.
By this time, we had been at their offices for over 7 and a half hours. Before they agreed to drive us back they wanted us to sign various documents some were to confirm our hotel and refreshments that we had had but 3 documents were for holidays that we didn’t ask for or want. I didn’t have my credit card with me and thought I could get away with not paying but they already had my credit card details on their file from when I booked the flight, which I thought, was illegal anyway.
We had been overwhelmed by it all, felt pressured and intimidated into signing several documents, which were not properly explained to us. We were stranded in what I thought was the middle of nowhere, it was dark, it was gone 7pm and we had been there since 12:30pm. It was like being hijacked taken to an office and forced to hand over your money and Bank details. I felt the easiest way out was to comply with their request go to the police and cancel the payment the next day.
The next morning, I phoned my credit card company to cancel the payment they informed me they couldn’t the payment had already gone through, I then went to the hotel reception and told them that I thought I had been defrauded. I asked for the nearest police station and at that point the office manager phoned me and said she about to pop in to see us at the hotel. We met in reception I told her about our fears. She asked to discuss it in private so we went to our room. I told her of my concerns and she placated some of my fears. I gave her a list of our concerns, which she said she would take back to her boss.
The next day was contacted by the owner of the company who assured me that everything was genuine and above board and asked if he could send a car to pick us up in order to discuss our concerns further. I declined thinking that we had a couple more days to go and we would be flying home and where I would be able to deal with the matter more easily, which I have been trying to do ever since.
We ended up signing and committing to an Accommodation Contract with Planet Sunlight Travel SL for the amount of £4,000.00. The amount is divided in the agreement between the accommodation at £2,500.00 and a so-called Subscription Application for the sum of £1,500.00. Accommodation we didn’t want or need.
We have to pay a further £4,000.00 for Subscription for Exclusive Service, which we never asked for to Travel Home Adventure S.L and an 7 Island Experience S.L. Application Number for the sum of £4,000.00.
None of the agreements or documents relate to a refund claim
We were not informed or explained at all why there were so many different companies and agreements involved.
According to their example we pay £4,000.00 by credit card and £4,000.00 cash payment, which is then financed by a £8,000.00 Bank loan.
At the meeting we questioned where does the £8,000.00 come from? But I was told from their bank and further question about who was responsible for the money were avoided.
It wasn’t until the next day when we met with Debbie again and asked her more questions, that she made it clear that we were responsible for the loan and its repayments.
So what happens to the £8,000.00?
Apart from paying the above, I was told that £8,000.00 was placed in their HSBC Hong Kong Bank over a five-year period where they got interest at the rate of 12.9%. We would be able to draw from it at the rate of £2,000.00 per year in order to pay towards any future holidays we might wish to book with them!
Why and how did we fall for it? Well these people are very convincing and I did think that they were genuine and a part of me still hopes that they are.
But hey if it walks like a Duck, quakes like a Duck it probably is a Duck
Mindtimeshare 
We’ve just been done for 3k, said the same, get your money back, signed everything after being there from 10am-6pm, long day, tired, just wanted out, then realised once we were back in the hotel room, that we had been done, to late to cancel as it was pending, the loan was for 6k, told them next day we had realised it was a scam, and that we weren’t taking it any further, and wouldn’t be answering call Monday, when back in England.
Dont know if we will anything get back through our CC, with signing the forms.
As this is fraud it’s time the Spanish government stepped in to stop it
Why have the fraud squad never acted and closed down this sc**. They must be fully aware of it. It has been going on for years. These cr**** should to be in prison.!
Just been thru the same experience was stupid enough to sign and pay 4.500 on credit card what can I do from.
Just got home 2 days ago. Fortunately for me my I said I didn’t have a credit card on me but I did but it’s almost maxed out
I was never told in advance what the meeting was about but told it was to get monies back
Debbie phoned me today to finalise things ….. very aggressive in Tenerife & more so in the phone
Needless to say I’m not going ahead which she’s not happy about …. of course she’s not
Can understand how people are taken in as I would have been if I’d got my credit card
Can anyone tell me if Alternative travel are part of this? Same thing happened to me 2 weeks ago and we didn’t find out about having to take a loan until 2 days ago. Gutted have paid £6000 on credit card
When can this fraud be stopped, taking advantage of innocent people
What can any of us do about this? Have a loan to pay that we clearly can’t cover Help needed
Hi Jacqueline,
Thanks for the comments, we will be contacting you by email and explain in detail what you can do and if you have the possibility to claim the money back.
We have helped many others already to get a refund.
Kind regards
Customer Care
this is awful exact same thing with same people happened to us £4000 on our credit card and because we signed papers they say there is nothing they can do i am refusing to pay what should i do just cant afford it need help please
What happened about paying hotel
Can anyone confirm if they have received refund or settlement of their claim.
No one that I know of I’ve spoken to several people we met there All in the same boat as us
yes same thing, met at the hotel then driven barry who drove us to ADEJE Planet Sunlight showed us around several offices 7 1/2 hours and £2500 WORSE OFF In the end we did know whether we were coming or going . They did want another £2500 and no they did not get it however, after we had a call from them insisting it is not a scam .The authorities must by now know what is going on
Exactly the same scenario occurred to us 19.03.18. So spooky, is there anything at all that can be done to stop this kind of business. Tenerife’s reputation is going down the drain.
report, please, report to local and uk authorities, social media, facebook, everything
Oh my goodness this has just happened to us!! We have just re read all the paper we signed!!.I am so scared. The refund on our timeshare could have changed our lives instead we are stuck witha possible bill for £12000 we havent got.
What did YOU do? We contacted our credit card people today.
has any one got any money back.
Island Breaks phoned me and we went to Tenerife. We had the same day, exactly as described above and met Debbie and my papers were taken away and photocopied. We sat about all morning. Debbie came over to the bar opposite the office and collected my file, took it away and photopcopied it. After lunch we were shown a number of different offices and, eventually at 6pm, feeling hot and tired, all these documents were produced that had to be signed in a hurry because the office had to close. There was no time to read anything and that were no paperwork to read with the loan information. Having been told by Island Breaks that there would be no upfront charges, We did wonder what the loan was for. But there was no time to properly discuss it and We very stupidly signed. There was so much pressure. This clearly has happened to others. We have sent the letters supplied to the banks. Negative answers and I do not see that I will ever get anything back. I can’t believe that this has happened to so may of us. Would like to warn others not to go. Has anyone got anything money back?
Can anyone tell me please if they received the repayment on their timeshare etc?
Do you know if anyone has got their money back?
I agree the Spanish government should do something as it is fraud it’s dishonest
The exact same thing happened to us last week. The only difference was that we didn’t find out about the loan until the following day when a Bruce de Vere came to our holiday apartment to give us that information. We went to Tenerife on a free accommodation break in return for attending a presentation. This seemed to get lost and at our meeting with Planet Sunlight we were told that this week constituted one of the three free weeks we got for taking out their subscription. We too were in the meeting for over 7 hours and felt pressurised to sign the endless sheets of paper presented to us. This paperwork was given to us after they had taken £4000 from our credit card. Needless to say, we have not paid the second £4000 and are endeavouring to get our money back from the credit card company. Surely if all of us got together, we could find a way of stopping this happening to others? This company is seeing couples every day of the week so it must have happened to hundreds of people.
A similar thing happened to us on 30th Jan 2018 and Bruce came round to our holiday apartment 2 days later but we were taken for £2,500 only – now in hands of Barclays (& others) for recovery/chargeback.
Senior Sales Consultant – Tommy Miller; Claims Assessor – Debbie (???); Founder & MD – Andy Clarke; Compliance Manager – Bruce Richardson (!!!). Further contact details available.
Thank you Charlie
This is very helpful Our consutant was such a lovely guy called Paul.
Can’t believe it is a sc**
Heartbroken.
We even met the famous Andy.
We have just had the same happen to us. We are still in Tenerife and Debbie will call when we get back to England. Been on the internet looking for further details such as email addresses on even last names and can find very little. If you any further emails and details of contacts that would be very helpful.
Thanks
This is fraud and should be stopped
Hi the same thing has just happened to us how did you get on with it that keep ringing but don’t answer the phone
Any one got any updates on getting your money back that that have taken please
This happened to us too, exact same scenario that was Dec 13th 2017 we are awaiting decision of credit card company to get £4000 back. We did not pay the other £4000 bank transfer when we got home.
Dear Carol.
We signed up to EZE group! in the first instant and were assured we would get our money back.
We were told there would be nothing to pay!
We too went to the “Offices” and saw all the paperwork “files”
Isn’t this totally heartbreaking ! We too have got our credit card onto it and will refuse to sign the loan agreement. Can’t believe we got caught again.
VC
Hi what happened with this in the end?
This is so scary, and so true of the tactics used by these people.
This type of fr*** is happening over and over again to too many innocent people. It happened to me and now when I write to the company who said that they were dealing with mine and many claimants does not reply. I was told that the case has been lodged with the Spainish Supreme Court ( what a load of rubbish). No case has been lodged and I truly believe that the so called company has vanished into thin air . The telephone calls are not even answered and , as we are all aware they are not cheap at peak times. Many of us have made this terrible mistake of being taken In by the so-called “sweet talking” persons saying we are getting deal of a life time or for life. We need to be very cautious when being approached by such people in holiday destinations everywhere especially in Europe. These companies should be checked to see if they are on Company House register if they are British and also their pseudo name/s.