Pure dead persistent: furious after a flurry of

under increasing scrutiny. Two weeks ago, Avalon Direct, a funeral planning company, was fined £80,000 by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for making 52,000 unlawful marketing calls.

The firm was fined for cold-calling people who had made it explicitly clear that they did not want to be contacted.

The ICO launched an investigation into Avalon after receiving allegations of illegal practice at a call centre in Cheshire, which was run by a company called Plan My Funeral Avalon Ltd.

The company then changed its name to Avalon Direct Ltd. It emerged it had made 51,917 calls to people registered with the Telephone Preference Service between March 1 and November 20, 2017.

It is illegal to call individuals registered with the TPS unless they have given specific consent.

Avalon stated it had purchased numbers from a third-party lead provider, but had no specific consent to call Tps-registered people.

Stewart Mcdonald, MP for Glasgow South, has launched a campaign asking for people to contact him with their experiences of pre-paid funeral plans.

The politician is concerned about the idea of funeral plan providers trying to sell policies to people like Jack over the phone.

“This is the first instance I have heard of a funeral planner cold calling people,” said Mr Mcdonald. “Whilst many funeral plan providers operate with very high standards, it is extremely concerning that there are those that target individuals and families, particularly at their most vulnerable, which is unacceptable.

“It is an area that I shall be looking closely at and I believe warrants further investigation.

“Cold calling is just another example of where the funeral industry needs cleaned up. I look forward to working closely with consumers and funeral providers to ensure people are no longer faced with further distress in what is already an extremely difficult time for many.”