Wood Green company fined £150,000 for 'nuisance marketing'

Poxell Ltd was found to have made 2.6million unlawful calls to third party phone numbers

A Wood Green company has been fined £150,000 after making millions of unwanted marketing calls.

Home improvement company Poxell Ltd was fined by The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for making over 2.6million illegal calls between March and July 2022 to people on the ‘do not call’ register with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) – resulting in 413 complaints to the ICO and TPS.

The ICO has said that complaints indicate that the company made calls to individuals with dementia and other serious illnesses. Some said they were targeted by a “very aggressive” salesperson.

It is against the law to make calls to those registered with the TPS without their consent.

Andy Curry, ICO head of investigations, said: “People register with the TPS for a clear reason: to stop unwanted marketing contact and protect their privacy. Both these companies have not only broken the law by failing to check the ‘do not call’ register, but also caused distress and disruption to those they bombarded with unwanted and unlawful calls.”

The ICO’s investigation found that Poxell Ltd had purchased several telephone lines to avoid detection. The company refused to engage with the investigation and continued to make unlawful marketing calls until their account was terminated by their communications service provider.

Curry added: “These fines should send a clear message that companies cannot use third parties or multiple phone numbers to avoid detection and taking responsibility for illegal calls. We will take decisive action to ensure the public are protected from nuisance marketing.”

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