A timeshare owner has told a jury of his shock at turning up to a meeting to discuss compensation and finding himself face to face with the salesman who mis-sold him the product five years earlier.
Customer John Hawkins thought he was dealing with a legal firm organising a class action on behalf of timeshare victims but instead found he was asked to hand over even more money.
He went to a meeting in Exeter with a group which called itself Class Action UK and claimed to be gathering 25,000 victims of timeshare mis-selling to launch a joint court case.
He was stunned when he arrived at the offices in the Marsh Barton of Devon Based Associates and found himself dealing with director Niel Mendoza.
He said it was the same man who had sold him the timeshare points five years earlier during a presentation by a holiday company calling itself Buena Viva.
Mendoza and fellow businessman Michael Girvin are on trial for fraudulent trading and the jury have been told they preyed on those who had already been mis-sold timeshares.
Both men had previously worked for St Francis Marketing, of which Girvin was director and Mendoza sales manager.
The jury have been told that Girvin admitted three offences after the collapse of the company and Mendoza was not prosecuted.
The Crown allege they went back into business with a scam in which they got unhappy timeshare owners through their door with the promise of legal action but then overcharging them for a service in which they bought themselves out of their contracts to avoid future service charges.
Mr Hawkins, from Devon, told the jury he and his wife bought a timeshare product in 2007 in which they bought points which could be redeemed at different holiday locations.
He said:"We went to a presentation in Exeter run my Mr Mendoza and bought a product but it did not work out as we hoped.
"In 2012 we received a phone call from someone who said they were putting together a class action for mis-selling. They also indicated we may be able to get out of our obligations.
"We thought it was a good idea and agreed to go to a meeting in Exeter. We had the idea they were maybe a firm of solicitors. We thought the company was something legal.
"To say we were most surprised when we walked into the room would be an understatement because we were taken to a side room where we met Mr Mendoza.
"We could not believe it. We were there to discuss mis-selling and found we were meeting the man who had mis-sold the timeshare to us in the first place. I found it astonishing.
"I said to him he must be a poacher turned gamekeeper and he knew what I meant because he recognised me. I listened to what he had to say and we told him we had been mis-sold timeshare and it had been misrepresented.
"He then went on about how we were owners of the product in perpetuity and they would come after our descendants for service charges.
"He was joined by another man and one of them told us a story about a widow whose family were pursued after her death for contract payments and service charges. I say it as obvious scare tactics.
"I said he knew we had been mis-sold the product because he had been there and had done it. He told us we could deregister our holding for a fee of £3,000 to £4,000.
"We thought 'this is not right'. How can a man who sold you a product five years before ask you to be part of an action for mis-selling.
"Alarm bells were ringing and there was no way we were going to hand over thousands of pounds. We thought it was some kind of scam and didn't want anything to do with it.
"We would not have taken the appointment in the first place if we had known. We left the meeting and that was it."
Girvin, aged 53, of Salterton Road, Exmouth, and Mendoza, aged 59, of Cordery Road, Exeter, deny fraudulent trading and three charges of breaching consumer protection legislation.
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