A former Back to Bermuda employee said yesterday almost every person who entered a free holiday prize draw was told they were a winner, then staff tried to get them to spend several thousand dollars on membership of a holiday club.

Sharon Morgan, who worked for Back to Bermuda for a month at Dockyard, said she believed at least 1,000 people filled in the free draw for a holiday.

To collect the ?free holiday? they had to listen to a sales pitch about buying holiday club membership costing several thousand dollars, she said.

And Ms Morgan said those told they had won a ?free holiday? were then asked to quickly pay between $450 and $500 to get their prize.

Ms Morgan?s story was corroborated by Bermudian Joan Wade-Richardson, who said yesterday she was put under pressure to pay $498 immediately to book a holiday in Cayman or Florida or she would lose the deal after being told she had won a free holiday.

?At the mall at the Clocktower in Dockyard we asked people if they wanted to enter a prize draw for a free holiday and almost everyone was told they had won a free holiday,? said Ms Morgan.

?They didn?t want single people, but they were targeting married couples and people with money. They told me they were like a travel agency business and my main job would be selling people holidays.

?There was nothing about having to go out and collect people?s names and addresses and doing cold calling and harassing them, if you want to call it that, by getting their names by offering them a free holiday.

?People were told to make an appointment to see me to collect their prize. We told them they had won a holiday but they had to sit through a long spiel about the company, and where they have places and how much money they can save, and that they would get cash back rewards, money back in a cheque, if they booked through them.

?After the spiel I gave them another form and told them to fax it to another number giving them a choice of three different dates for their holiday.

?They were told they would be got to within 48 hours. I had a few calls from people saying they had not got back to them. I also had calls from locals reluctant to give their credit card details.

?The first forms were for people who gave their names and address for the prize draw. I sent the ones from overseas people to Craig Bosio at an address in Lexington, Massachusetts, and someone from overseas would call them telling them they had won one week?s accommodation in Cayman for four people, but they had to pay their own air fare and taxes and stuff like food.

?They were trying to approach them to sell this membership. They started off with a 15 year membership for $3,500, and because no one was taking any interest, they dropped it to $2,500 for five years.

?Then there was family membership for $4,500, then they went for family membership of $5,500.

?The form for the holiday was filled out and then they sat back and waited for people to call them back. Most people were charged $450 to $500 to get the holiday, but they didn?t have a clue what it was for because it was not for air fare.

?Craig Bosio spoke to me in person and was very much the money man. All he was interested in was how many sales we had made and has anyone paid their money.?

Mrs. Wade-Richardson said: ?I filled it out and forgot about it, but a month ago I got a telephone call from an American man telling me I had won a one week vacation in Cayman or Florida.

?I asked what the catch was, and he said I would have to pay $498 up front. He said it was a $10,000 holiday but I was getting it for $3,000.

?I said I would have to think about it and would he wait until tomorrow because I would talk to my family the next day.

?He said if I didn?t pay it right now I would lose the vacation, and I said I?ll lose it because I am not giving out my credit card number.?