Antonio Pardo’s Direct Security Marketing made thousands of “frightening” automated calls – many between 1am and 6am – in an attempt to peddle burglar alarms.
Now the government’s privacy watchdog has hit the company with a £70,000 fine.
But there’s little chance of the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) ever seeing the cash because the firm at the centre of the controversy is being struck off.
The revelation comes six months after we disclosed the ICO’s woeful record in clawing back fines it has handed out. Existing rules on
cold-calling mean fines are only applicable to the companies making them.
That means directors are able to get off scot-free simply by winding up their business and starting it again under a different name.
Cold calling campaigner David Hickson, of the Fair Telecoms Campaign, said: “It’s ridiculous there is nothing to stop someone folding a company and then starting again.
“We need to either go after people individually or come up with some radical solutions to halt this menace.”
The ICO’s Andy Curry, described the behaviour of Direct Security Marketing as “very frightening”.
The regulator released some of the examples of complaints it received about the firm, which included: “Receiving a call from a withheld number at 4.40 in the morning is an extremely unpleasant experience. I have elderly parents therefore the first thing I thought of was that something had happened to them.”
“No-one wants to receive a phone call in the middle of the night as it’s usually bad news.”
Another read: “I am complaining on behalf of my 84-year-old mother who lives alone. When the phone rang in the middle of the night she thought it was a family emergency or death. She tripped in her anxiety to reach the phone and fell, badly twisting her leg.”
The Sunday Post has campaigned for a crackdown on unscrupulous cold-call companies, which often target the vulnerable and elderly.
Our 20,000 signature petition, delivered to 10 Downing Street, demanding action led to the setting up of the nuisance calls and texts task force.
It called for a series of measures to end the menace, including new powers for the ICO to make the directors of companies involved in cold-calling personally responsible.
A spokeswoman for the watchdog said: “Fining the culprits hits the headlines and sends a clear message that we’re prepared to come down hard on the law-breakers. But our ultimate aim is simpler – we just want to stop the nuisance.
“We don’t fine companies lightly and if necessary we can use our powers to pursue non-payment through the courts.
“We also support the recommendation of the nuisance calls and texts taskforce that we should be given additional powers to hold individual directors to account.”
Direct Security Marketing Ltd, which has never filed paperwork with Companies House and lists Pardo as its sole director, could not be contacted.
We managed to track Pardo down to his three-bedroom detached house in Warwick, which is worth more than £500,000, but a woman identifying herself as Mrs Pardo said he had no comment to make.
Last year we revealed the ICO, which has the power to fine companies which break nuisance calls laws up to £500,000, had received just over £300,000 of the £1.4 million in penalties it had dished out.
Money from the penalties is handed over to the Treasury.
READ MORE
Nuisance phone calls killed my husband
£1 million scandal of cold call fine dodgers: Watchdog admits firms routinely don’t pay penalties
New BT service set to divert ‘huge numbers’ of nuisance calls
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