Boss behind firms fined £340k for over a million nuisance calls
ABOSS of two financial firms, which have been granted the Financial Conduct Authority’s seal of approval, has been found to be behind two separate companies facing massive fines for making more than a million nuisance calls to elderly and vulnerable victims.
Outsource Strategies Limited and Dr Telemarketing Limited were investigated by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), which found the pair had called almost 1.43 million people who had listed their numbers on the Telephone Preference Service’s ‘do not call’ register. The firms have been fined £240,000 and £100,000 respectively.
The calls were made over a 13-month period. The ICO revealed: ‘People who complained said the callers were aggressive and used high-pressure sales tactics to persuade them to sign up for products. The ICO investigation also found evidence that both companies were specifically targeting elderly and vulnerable people.’
At the time of these offences, the sole director of Outsource Strategies was wealthy North London businessman Noyan Nihat. He was also one of two directors at Dr Telemarketing. The other was his long-term business colleague Wayne Phillips, who has since been banned from acting as the director of any UK company.
Meanwhile, Nihat is registered with the watchdog FCA as a director of Monark Global, which also uses the name TruDiamonds to trade as an online jewellery business. The FCA registration allows the company to act as a credit broker.
He is also a director and Chief Operating Officer of Privat 3 Money, an electronic payment services firm licensed by the FCA. And he is a member of the Advisory Board of The Payments Association, a leading trade organisation.
According to the FCA Register, Nihat has been approved by the regulator since 2018, and has never faced any disciplinary or regulatory action. This is true, but what the Register does not show is that Nihat was a director and joint owner of a Cardiff company, Mefinance Limited, which was authorised by the FCA, allowing it to sell insurance through telemarketing.
In 2013, I reported how the same firm used telemarketing to drum up business for a consumer magazine called Sapphire.
A Mail on Sunday reader who was called was promised the magazine and a selection of discount vouchers, all on a free 14-day trial.
If she did not cancel within that time, her bank account would be debited with an annual subscription of £79. The reader – a pensioner – received no magazine or vouchers but Mefinance collected its £79 from her bank.
When she protested, she was told it was her own fault for failing to cancel the payment before the free trial period ended. After The Mail on Sunday intervened, the reader received a full refund, and the company itself went into liquidation in 2015.
Even further back, in 2011, Nihat ran a marketing company which represented Vitamail, a notorious mail order firm that issued mailshots giving people the impression they had won thousands of pounds. Winners had to place an order for Vitamail’s health products, after which the goods arrived but the prizes were somehow more elusive.
I asked the FCA how, in the wake of Vitamail and Mefinance, it had felt confident that Nihat would treat customers fairly when it approved him in 2018 to hold a major position at Monark Global. And I also asked the watchdog whether it was now reconsidering its approval, following the huge fines imposed by the Information Commissioner.
The FCA refused to answer. A spokesman told me: ‘We cannot comment on individual firms. We take all information received about the firms we regulate seriously, including fines by other regulators.’
I also invited Nihat to comment on the £340,000 fines faced by the two nuisance call companies he ran. And I asked whether he believed the FCA would also take action. Nihat did not respond.