End of the cold calling sharks

Bosses of firms that plague householders will be held personally liable – and face fines of £500,000

A MAJOR crackdown on the bosses of rogue cold-call firms is to be announced today.

Directors of companies that plague people with nuisance calls will be held personally liable – and fined up to £500,000.

It will mean these bosses can no longer dodge penalties for cold-calling simply by shutting down their firms then starting up again.

Figures show that only £9.7million of the £17.8million issued in fines for nuisance calling since 2010 has been collected, because company directors have been so adept at dodging them.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) recovered only 54 per cent of the money as companies went into liquidation to avoid big penalties.

Today’s crackdown represents a victory for the Daily Mail, which has campaigned for a clampdown on unscrupulous firms that often target the elderly and vulnerable.

Many homeowners have spoken of being too scared to answer the phone because they fear being harassed.

Some 3.9billion nuisance calls and texts were made last year, the equivalent of 7,420 every minute, according to estimates by Ofcom.

The calls were mostly linked to bogus personal injury and insurance claims, pensions and payment protection insurance (PPI).

Currently, businesses can be fined up to £500,000 for making nuisance calls, but some directors avoid punishments by declaring bankruptcy. They are then free to open a new cold-calling company under a different name.

Telecoms boss Greg Rudd, whose firm was fined £400,000 for making an ‘unprecedented’ 100million cold calls, last year avoided the penalty by shutting his firm, Keurboom Communications Ltd.

The 52-year-old had previously got out of a £1.3million fine for a separate phone scam at a different company after it went into liquidation before any reparations were made. He was previously a director of Allied Telecommunications Ltd, a firm at the centre of a nexus of 16 nuisance call services which lured people into dialling premium rate numbers with the promise of a cash prize.

When the scam was exposed in 2005, Allied was hit with a £1.3million fine, but also went straight into liquidation.

The new proposals, which are subject to consultation, will give the ICO the power to hold business directors directly responsible with further fines of up to £500,000. This means company bosses and firms could face £1million in fines in the most extreme cases.

Digital minister Margot James said: ‘Nuisance calls are a blight on society and we are determined to stamp them out. For too long a minority of company directors have escaped justice by liquidating their firms and opening up again under a different name.

‘We want to make sure the Information Commissioner has the powers she needs to hold rogue bosses to account and put an end to these unwanted calls.’

Steve Wood of the ICO said: ‘We welcome these proposals from the Government to make directors themselves responsible for nuisance marketing.

‘We have been calling for a change to the law for a while to deter those who deliberately set out to disrupt people with troublesome calls, texts and emails.’

Alex Neill of consumer group Which? said: ‘For too long, those who bombard people with calls have been able to skip fines and sidestep the rules by closing one business and opening another.

‘The new proposals must result in an end to such dodgy practices so that company directors responcomplaints sible for this everyday menace are properly held to account.’

Scottish Tory MP Stephen Kerr brought forward a Bill at Westminster last month demanding that company directors are made ‘personally liable’ for cold calls.

Minister for Scotland Lord Ian Duncan said: ‘The UK Government is taking action on nuisance calls. Company bosses have been able to plague people with unsolicited calls for too long.’

The Scottish Government’s Nuisance Calls Commission called for ministers to set up a single system and voluntary code of conduct for firms operating call centres in Scotland.

UK ministers now plan to make directors liable for nuisance call fines by amending the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations legislation. The consultation closes in August.

The ICO, which regulates marketing companies, receives about 7,500 complaints about nuisance calls and texts every month.

Regulators imposed more than £1.9million in fines to 23 firms in 2016-17 for unwanted messages.

In many cases, those who had signed up to the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) were contacted. Penalties included £85,000 for a firm exposed by Money Mail for cold-calling the elderly.

Money Mail reported how True Telecom cold-callers promised savings on phone bills – only to lock elderly customers into expensive three-year contracts with hefty exit charges of up to £600.

The information watchdog found that for more than two years – and despite a warning from the regulator – the Kent-based firm called people who were registered with the TPS. Firms are banned from contacting those on the list.

After the ICO issued its fine, the firm announced in November that it had gone into administration.

‘A blight on society’ ‘End such dodgy practices’