A couple who ran a European holiday scam by massively over-booking a sunshine villa when a pensioner was actually living there full-time were jailed yesterday.

A judge heard that when Tracy and Derren Grant hit hard times, they leased out their holiday villa in Majorca to an ex-pat pensioner – and then continued booking in holidaymakers.

They netted more than £100,000 from the fraudulent scam which sometimes saw up to a dozen families turning up at the villa at the same time – only to find it already had a resident.

The Grants, from Wincanton in Somerset, continued to take bookings from tourists from the UK, as well as Norway, Denmark, Sweden, France and Italy, despite leasing the property out to a businessman on a 12-month agreement.

In some cases, groups of up to 12 people, including hen parties and large families, arrived at the £1million villa in Santa Ponsa, Majorca. The holidays had been advertised on several websites.

However, they were turned away from the six-bedroom house – its usage having already been booked out to a retired businessman who had made it his home.

Yesterday the couple were each sentenced after admitting 19 counts of fraud between February and July 2009. This amounted to 53 payments from 29 named people, although one individual could represent up to 13 people, in a £98,000 fraud. Tax, inflation and add-ons boosted the total sum they gained up to £109,336.

Yesterday, Michael Goodwin, prosecuting at Guildford Crown Court, said the property had been leased to businessman Malcolm Leggett but the Grants continued to take deposits for holidays at the same property.

“They were effectively packing and stacking bookings,” he added. “In one case on May 25, four different parties were booked during the same week. On July 20 there were six separate bookings and on August 2 there were 12 separate bookings made (all for the same week).”

Abdulluh-Al-Yunusi, defending 42-year-old Mrs Grant, said the villa had been under her name, but her involvement was “peripheral” compared with that of her husband.

Abdulluh-Al-Yunusi said: “This had been used as a holiday letting property for many seasons. It wasn’t bought for the sole purpose of this fraud. Mrs Grant’s role was peripheral. It was Mr Grant who took and managed the bookings. The defendants were traceable and it came back to haunt them. They were always going to get caught. It was stupid and they accept that.”

Jason Sugarman, defending 47-year-old Mr Grant, said: “He is desperately sorry. It was a terrible situation and he wishes he could turn back time.”

The court was told Grant had experienced financial problems when the recession hit two years ago. During the time of the fraud, he had to re-mortgage the villa and was having disputes with Barclays Bank in Spain over the amount of money they had taken from his account, said Mr Sugarman. The villa has since been repossessed after it was purchased by the bank for 970,000 euros.

Mrs Grant will serve a nine-month term in prison, while her husband was sentenced to 27 months in jail. They were ordered to pay £20,470 pounds in compensation.

It was expected that each victim would receive about 20 per cent of the money they spent on their holiday. The Grants looked expressionless as they were led away by dock officers to begin their sentence.