46m cold calls king ...who still lives at home with his mum!
A MAN responsible for sending out 46million cold calls was last night revealed as an internet geek living at home with his mother.
Guitar-playing Louis Kidd, 27, launched Prodial Ltd, the firm dealt a record £350,000 fine by the Information Commissioner’s Office, from his mother’s house in Brighton.
It was fined last week after more than 1,000 people complained about the automated calls, which played recorded messages relating to payment protection insurance claims. Mr Kidd and business partner Phil Carrington, 55, are said to have bought British telephone numbers from a firm in South Africa and bombarded homes with more than 330,000 automated calls a day.
But on dating websites, Mr Kidd presents himself as a harmless, guitar-strumming romantic who is a successful IT manager.
Going by the name of ‘ moosey_ man’, he lists his interests as singing and playing computer games, and says he is looking for a soulmate he can ‘snuggle’.
He says he ‘puts hours into watching Netflix’ and would like to find someone who enjoys his ‘geeky gaming side’. He adds: ‘I love to play with gadgets, and work on projects, once I get involved in a project I get very stuck into it…
‘I work hard and have to think hard a lot in my profession, it’s good to get away from the screen from time to time and clear my mind (company’s welcome)…
‘Honestly I’m at a point where career is pretty much set out now, I’m an IT manager for a telecoms company and really enjoy it and no doubt will always progress in my profession.’
The ICO estimates Prodial Ltd was turning over £1million a year. But Mr Kidd, who resigned as a director last July, and Mr Car- rington may escape scot-free. The company has been put into voluntary liquidation and the ICO is working with liquidators to recover the fine.
The pair previously worked at Italk Affiliate Telecommunications, which is under investigation by the ICO for making between four million and six million nuisance calls a day. It is thought the company used the same technology as Prodial.
Software understood to have been developed by Mr Kidd allowed Prodial to make constant phone calls. Any leads were sold on to third parties, earning the company as much as £100,000 a month.
One doctor who was targeted said the volume of unsolicited calls was hindering him answering the phone in the case of an emergency. Christopher Graham, the Information Commissioner, said: ‘This is one of the worst cases of cold-calling we have ever come across.
‘This was a company that knew it was breaking the law. A company director admitted that once the ICO became involved, the company shut down.
‘That stopped the calls, but we want to send a clear message to other firms that this type of lawbreaking will not pay.’
Mr Kidd and Mr Carrington were unavailable for comment.
A lawyer for Italk’s major shareholder previously said there had been ‘no formal allegation, charge or complaint’ received by his client or companies associated with him.