A SCOTS firm approved by the government as green energy advisers has been fined a record £200,000 by the UK information rights commissioner after it "made people's lives a misery" by making six million nuisance cold calls over three months.
Cambuslang-based Home Energy & Lifestyle Management Ltd (HELM), received the penalty from the Information Commissioner's Office who ruled that the firm "recklessly" broke marketing call regulations.
HELM is listed as one of the authorised assessors by the Department of Energy and Climate Change as part of the Green Deal initiative, the government's flagship energy household efficiency programme.
But an ICO investigation discovered that HELM made over six million calls in nearly three months as part of a massive automated call marketing campaign offering ‘free’ solar panels.
ICO said HELM failed to abide by the direct marketing rules which state any organisation making automated calls has to make sure that they have the permission of the targeted consumer, and they must identify who they are. ICO said HELM admitted they did not know what the rules were.
In just over two months, from October to December 2014, the ICO received 242 complaints about HELM's unsolicited calls.
ICO said its investigation also found that the calls were also misleading because the solar panels were not necessarily free as implied by the recorded message.
One complainant stated they were waiting for news of a terminally ill family member and could not ignore the phone, and felt powerless against the automated calls.
Another talked of the calls bringing back memories of the morning phone call when their young grandchild had passed away.
Another said they felt like their home had been invaded as the answer machine filled up with calls from the company.
The ICO said the calls were often repeated and it was not always possible to connect to a person or to stop the calls.
Consumer watchdog Which? said action should now be taken to hold senior executives personally accountable if their organisation makes unlawful calls.
Steve Eckersley, head of enforcement at the ICO, said: “This company’s ignorance of the law is beyond belief. It didn’t even bother to find out what the rules were and its badly thought out marketing campaign made people’s lives a misery. The monetary penalty is for a significant amount because of the clear failings of the company, and the number of people affected by its deliberate and unlawful campaign.
“It should be a warning to other companies to think before they launch into a campaign. Direct marketing campaigns can be run within the law with a little thought and there’s plenty of advice available to companies in the ICO’s website.”
The ICO has received more than 180,000 complaints about nuisance calls in the last year, up from 160,000 two years earlier.
Which? executive director Richard Lloyd added: "A bumper £200,000 fine by the ICO should make nuisance callers sit up and take notice.
"With the Government looking at making caller line ID mandatory for marketing calls and increased action from regulators, telecoms providers must now play their part and use technological fixes to help cut off nuisance calls."
In the past two years firms have received £1.3m in fines by ICO over cold calls and spam texts but only £392,000 has so far been paid.
The government's Green Deal scheme, launched three years ago by the previous coalition government, offered householders cheap long-term loans to make their homes more energy efficient and cut bills with no upfront cost. The loans are then repaid, with interest, through energy bills.
Nobody at HELMS was available for comment.
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