Art Creative Ltd

Businessman fined over 22m nuisance calls

Martin Castilla            No comments            Jan, 23

A businessman responsible for making 22 million automated telephone calls was identified yesterday, as his company received one of the largest fines on record for nuisance messages.

Adam Mangan, 49, made the calls, featuring pre-recorded messages, over seven months, promoting compensation for payment protection insurance, personal injury claims and debt management. He ran the operation from the headquarters of his marketing businesses in Fleet, Hampshire.

One victim plagued by the calls stopped answering the telephone and others complained that they were alarmed and distressed by the persistent messages.

Mr Mangan’s company, Road Accident Consult, was fined £270,000 by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) yesterday for breaching the law on data protection.

The company had obtained the victims’ telephone numbers from websites including payday loan and insurance brokers, a prize-draw site and a music-streaming service. Mr Mangan claimed that the company was entitled to make the calls as privacy notices on the sites said the information they collected could be passed to third parties.

The ICO said that automated marketing calls were allowed only when the recipient had given permission to a specific caller.

Accounts for the four marketing companies that Mr Mangan owns show that they made profits of £445,000 in the past two years.

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