March 11, 2019

The ICO says that its investigations into nuisance marketing have resulted in 16 company directors being banned from running a company for more than 100 years in total.

The latest ban disqualified Richard Jones of Carmarthen, South Wales, from being a company director for eight years after his two companies, Your Money Rights Ltd and Miss-Sold Products UK Ltd were responsible for 220 million automated nuisance calls and had failed to pay fines issued by the ICO. Most of the calls made were about payment protection insurance claims and resulted in total fines of £700,000 in 2017.

Mr Jones had applied to Companies House to have the businesses wound up to avoid paying the fines. This was blocked by the ICO, which then referred the case on to the Insolvency Service.

The ICO has reached the 100-year milestone by working in partnership with the Insolvency Service, referring evidence that can result in company directors being disqualified for up to 15 years.

The 16 directors have been disqualified for a total of 107.5 years. New legislation, which came into force in December 2018, means that the ICO now has powers to make company directors and other company officers personally liable for the fines imposed for illegal marketing. To read the ICO’s press release in full, click here.