ICO fines total of £590,000 to 5 companies making unwanted calls illegally

The Information Commissioners Office (ICO) is fining five companies a total of £590,000. The rogue companies collectively made 1.9 million unwanted marketing telephone calls which deliberately targeted the elderly and people with vulnerabilities.

The ICO says

This latest action is part of a wider crackdown to tackle rogue companies using pressurised sales techniques to sell insurance for white goods, such as washing machines and fridges, and other household appliances, including TVs.

£1.45 million in fines have now been issued by the ICO since October 2021 to 16 companies for making illegal, unwanted marketing calls, many to people who had taken steps to block nuisance calls by registering with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS). The fines resulted from detailed investigations by the ICO, assisted by intelligence from National Trading Standards

The companies often target older people and people with vulnerabilities, and in most instances, people who already had or did not need the service.”

However, it’s all very well making headline-grabbing statements but what actually happens? Many companies fined by the ICO will simply not pay the fine, shut down the company and then do it again under another company name. It is important that the ICO continues to use its legal powers to go after the directors of these companies, fining them personally and holding them responsible for the harm they have caused.

 

FoI to the ICO

Back in 2020 I made a Freedom of Information request and found that during the year 2019-2020 the ICO issued fines totalling £2,555,000. However, despite this large amount, only £280,000 had been collected successfully by the ICO. See my article ICO fails to stop SMS Spammers for more details.

The figures for 2018-2019 were not much better. Fines issued totalled £4,838,000 and a total of £3,174,200 was paid. Even if ALL the companies fined were given a 20% discount for early payment and there was a 100% collection rate, that would be a total of £3,870,400, leaving at least £696,200 unpaid.

In December 2022 the ICO announced that it had imposed fines totalling £435,000 after companies targeted people aged over 60 with almost half a million unlawful marketing calls. One of those companies was All Appliances UK. I asked the ICO if the company had paid its fine and at the point of publishing the ICO had not replied.

Andy Curry, Head of ICO Investigations said:

“We’ve heard harrowing stories of people being hounded with these nuisance calls, and feeling forced into handing over bank details for unwanted and unnecessary insurance. We’re working to protect people who are being deliberately targeted because they’re seen as easy pickings by unscrupulous cold callers.”

Case study provided by the ICO :

 “Jonathan Young’s parents made payments totalling more than £2,000 to around a dozen companies after receiving marketing calls for insurance policies that they didn’t need. Mr Young tracked the payments through his parents’ bank statements and spent months trying to recover the money. The ICO has today fined two of those companies as part of the latest round of its action.

Jonathan said: “Despite opting out of receiving marketing calls, my parents were bombarded by calls from companies selling insurance products. They were often left confused about who was calling them and high-pressure sales tactics led to them paying thousands of pounds for policies they didn’t need or really want.

“During one call, I believe my mother may have been coerced into making a payment using my father’s debit card while he was asleep. Companies should not be targeting elderly people and those with vulnerabilities in this way and I am grateful to the ICO for its continuing action to help prevent distress to other families.” 

However, is it really preventing distress to other families? In this example, consumers were misled into purchasing items that they did not need. This is a breach of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008. Will further action be taken against them regarding this breach of consumer law? It breaches financial regulations. I have asked the FCA to comment.

If you are registered with the Telephone Preference Service it is against the law for companies to make live marketing calls to you, unless you gave specific instructions for to allow an individual named company to do so. So, whilst you may get the occasional law breaker, it should stop the calls on the whole.

You can make a complaint about a company making illegal calls on the ICO website.

Rogues Gallery

The five latest companies to be issued with fines by the ICO are:

• SGS Home Protect Ltd fined £70,000 and issued an enforcement notice for making 24,241 calls to TPS registered numbers. This company is owned and operated by Kelvin Miles, based in Poole, Dorset.
• Cover Appliance Ltd fined £200,000 and issued an enforcement notice for making 511,499 calls to TPS registered numbers. This company is based in London. Its directors were Gary Farino, Alan McDowell and Michael Reid, who all resigned during 2022.
• F12 Management Ltd fined £200,000 and issued an enforcement notice for making 1,346,019 calls to TPS registered numbers. The company is owned and operated by Anna Allen, based in Hove, East Sussex.
• House Hold Appliances 247 Ltd fined £55,000 and issued an enforcement notice for making 19,069 calls to TPS registered numbers. A compulsory strike off was issued in August 2022 and discontinued in June 2023. A voluntary strike-off application made in July 2023 and suspended in August 2023.
• RHAP Ltd fined £65,000 and issued an enforcement notice for making 15,288 calls to TPS registered numbers. The company is owned by Robert Howard and based in Bury.

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