Fourteen people face justice for scamming over 3,500 victims in a £28 million investment fraud

Fourteen people have been convicted and sentenced for their part in exploiting over 3,500 victims in a more than £28 million investment fraud, making it one of the largest crimes of this kind in the UK.

Mark Rowe, 54, Jodi Beard, 43, Paul Harrison, 54, Nihat Paul Salih, 57, and Lisa Salih, 56,have all been convicted at Southwark Crown Court for conspiracy to defraud and sentenced for seven and half years’ imprisonment, two years imprisonment suspended, four and half years’ imprisonment, three years imprisonment, respectively on 5 January 2025. Samantha McCaulay has been found guilty of an additional one count of fraud and sentenced 18 months suspended imprisonment.

Paul Harrison has also been found guilty of an additional seven counts of fraud. Paul Salih and his wife Lisa Salih have each been found guilty of an additional seven counts of fraud.
On the 4 April 2025; Simon Walker, 58, and Joanne Physick, 46, was sentenced  to four and half years and two and half years imprisonment respectively after being found guilty of a conspiracy to defraud.

Then on 5 September 2025; David Taylor, 65, was found guilty of conspiracy to defraud and sentenced to three years imprisonment; Joanne Taylor, 53, pleaded guilty for fraud by false representation and 12 month suspended sentence and 15 days rehabilitation; and Lee Evans, 52, pleaded guilty for on a basis for fraud by false representation and has a two year suspended sentence and 150 hours unpaid work.

For the remaining defendants on 17 October: Josephine Cuthill Fox, 60, pleaded guilty on a basis for fraud by false representation and was sentenced to two years imprisonment, suspended for two years;  Barrie Fox, 69, pleaded guilty on a basis for fraud by false representation and was sentenced to 21 months imprisonment, suspended for two years; Nicola Rowe, 54, pleaded guilty on a basis for transferring criminal property and to be sentenced to two years imprisonment suspended for two years.

Gayle Ramsay, Specialist Prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service said: “These defendants acted in a completely selfish and manipulative manner to make huge sums for themselves and exploited time share owners many of whom were elderly.

“They provided victims with the false hope of disposing of timeshares in exchange for a valuable investment when in reality they were each left thousands of pounds out of pocket after purchasing something which was worthless.

“The CPS worked very closely with the South West Regional Organised Crime Unit to track down these fraudsters and bring them to justice. This was an extremely large and complex investigation and prosecution involving vast amounts of material. After multiple trials lasting years, we have finally ensured that justice has been served through these convictions.

“We will now seek to pursue any money or assets gained by the defendants through this offending with our Proceeds of Crime Division.”

Senior Investigating Officer Peter Highway from the South West Regional Organised Crime Unit, which ran the six-year complex investigation, said: “The fact so many people were defrauded in this case reflects the lengths Mark Rowe went to both to lure victims to meetings with his criminal sales team and continually invent new methods to deceive them. He paid for TV and magazine ads, put victims up in hotels, and even created fake virtual offices and fake personas.

“We know how important each guilty verdict has been to the thousands of victims targeted by Mark Rowe and his staff. Many of the victims have shown immense strength in attending court to give evidence, with some enduring extensive periods of cross-examination.

“Fraud cases, by their nature, are complex. When you have a case of this scale, where defendants made use of hundreds of bank accounts in multiple countries to move around millions of pounds stolen from thousands of victims, that complexity is amplified.
 
“These convictions are testament to the hard work and dedication of the investigation team and CPS, together with the courage of the witnesses to stand in front of the jury and recount their experiences.”

The convictions follow four trials held over two years at Southwark Crown Court. Reporting restrictions were in place until last month’s guilty plea by the final defendant, Nicola Rowe, wife of Mark Rowe.

The Crown Prosecution Service and South West Regional Organised Crime Unit discovered that over 3,500 victims completed the purchase of investment products called ‘Monster Credits’ at a loss in total of £28 million.

Almost all victims were timeshare owners, typically between 55-80 years old that have been targeted through direct advertisement or cold calling using a ‘bait and switch’ tactic by defendants led by Mark Rowe.

Bait and Switch Fraud 
Bait and switch fraud relies upon fraudulent advertising to lure potential customers into fraudsters’ place of business. It is an attempt to mislead the customer through an alluring but insincere offer (the “bait”) in order to induce them to purchase a separate product (the “switch”).

The switch is falsely presented by the fraudsters to be a valuable investment and following hard sales techniques the new product is then purchased by the victim for large additional sums when it is in reality of little or no monetary value.

For many years purchasers of timeshare have been desperate to dispose of their timeshare owing to advancing age, changes in where they wish to go on holiday and increasing maintenance charges and other fees. This provided an opportunity to fraudsters to offer to purchase their timeshare and defraud victims by selling a worthless investment.

The Defendants

Mark Rowe was the brainchild behind this operation and had businesses based in Tenerife, Canary Islands, and in the UK where he told customers that he could get them out of their timeshare contracts but only if they spent thousands of pounds – from around £6,000 at the lower end, up to £80,000 on “Monster Credits”: an investment product which he had invented.
Rowe spent the proceeds of his fraudulent enterprise on lavish homes in Hampshire and Tenerife and paid for private education for his children.

Other Defendants:

• Nihat Paul and Lisa Salih each separately, sold hundreds of thousands of Monster Credits to the many customers they each dealt with at Bournemouth from around March 2014 through to 2017
• Paul Harrison not only sold credits but also took a pro-active role in devising and distributing suggested “scripts” to deal with changes as to how the product was to be sold
• Jodi Beard acted as a marketing director of Hollywood Marketing. Her role included organising the creation and then the operation of an internet platform for the sale of Monster Credits. A website on which customers who had bought hundreds of thousands of Monster Credits could offer them for sale and other customers of the business would be able to buy them
• Samantha MacCauley was the credits administrator at Monster Travel, a trading name under Hollywood Marketing
• Simon Walker was employed by Mark Rowe from the beginning of the sale of Monster Credits. He started working as a sales person and was promoted to a Sales Director
• Joanne Physick worked as a compliance officer and rose to be a compliance manager in Monster Credits
• David Taylor and his wife Joanne Taylor acted as sales operators for Monster credits in which he dishonestly persuaded customer to purchased
• Lee Evans, Josephine Cuthill Fox and her husband Barrie Fox sold Monster credits hundreds of times to customers in exchange for millions of pounds
• Nicola Rowe is the wife of the owner, Mark Rowe. She did not take part in the selling of the credits; however, she was involved with the business’ finances including being a signatory on various business accounts connected to these crimes