Nuisance call firms Omega Marketing Services Ltd and Vincent Bond Ltd fined £100k

[Michael Browne]

Complaints from people bombarded with spam texts and nuisance calls have today helped the ICO fine two companies a total of £100,000.

 

Separate investigations into Omega Marketing Services Ltd and Vincent Bond Ltd were both triggered by complaints about nuisance marketing. Now the firms have been fined £60,000 and £40,000 respectively.

 

The ICO receives around 13,000 complaints about spam texts, emails and nuisance calls a month. It is currently investigating 167 cases. Report nuisance calls at ico.org.uk/calls.

[jogu]

It's unfortunately all very pointless.

 

You'll notice that the press release doesn't mention whether the fines were paid or not. That's because the majority of these fines don't actually get paid. The people running these companies are clever, they've already made and extracted their money, by the time the ICO investigation is done there's nothing left but the company shell - with the people running it already having setup the next company.

 

You'll further notice that the ICO linked one of the companies to one it had already fined, and that one appears to be about to be struck off by companies house, presumably without having paid the fine.

 

The ICO needs to up their game and actually take criminal action against the directors involved to make them personally liable. The Companies Act already allows this to happen, the problem is the government don't actually take action. Companies House rarely prosecute any directors, and there's no joined up action between ICO and Companies House to pay special attention to firms that the ICO have already found acted in violation of the law.