The Golden Sands Resort is at the centre of accusations that a Maltese firm formerly part-owned by ex-Manchester United football players Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs mis-sold timeshares to hundreds of British holidaymakers.

Neville has since taken to social media to deny the claims made by British media house, The Times, writing:

“It’s a sham of an article to leverage off me on this matter and the journalist is an 80/90’s stitch up merchant. I did think you were better than this to be honest. I explained to him for 20 mins two weeks ago and also predicted this headline.”

It has reported that the UK financial regulator is investigating £47 million of timeshare loans made to buyers at the Maltese resort.

It is alleged that the company marketed timeshares without UK authorisation between April 2014 and April 2016, with sales staff brokering around 1,444 loans with Barclays Bank.

It is understood Barclays had a contract with Azure Resorts Limited, which was authorised by the UK Financial Conduct Authority for credit brokering, but later discovered the staff were employed by the unlicensed Azure Services Limited.

Azure Services Limited is an MFSA registered company currently owned by Corinthia and Mediterranean Overseas Holdings Limited.

The company previously fell under the Island Hotels Group, with Neville resigning as a director in September 2015 as it was being sold to Corinthia.

The Island Hotels Group owned 50 per cent of the Golden Sands resort and 50 per cent of Azure Services Limited, which marketed the timeshares and brokered the Barclays loans.

Both the subsidiaries were described by Island Hotels Group as “jointly controlled entities”.

Customers have complained that the terms of the loans were not explained to them, and that proper credit checks were not carried out and that they were pressured into signing deals.

There have also been claims that “false representations” were also made about the loans’ financial impact.

The timeshare loans that are believed that have been mis-sold will now be taken under consideration.

Lovin Malta reached out to Azure Services Limited earlier today, however they were not in a position to comment. Questions sent via email were not answered by the time of writing.

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Julian Bonnici

Julian is the former editor of Lovin Malta and has a particular interest in politics, the environment, social issues, and human interest stories.