Bolton and Burnley premises raided in ‘nuisance texts’ probe

The raids were carried out last month by the Information Commissioner’s Office in Bolton, Burnley, Liverpool, London and Swansea across residential and business premises.

The ICO said this came after more than 12M complaints about motor finance nuisance texts since September last year, with up to 100,000 being received by the watchdog every day.

This week the ICO announced it had fined a company £190,000 for bombarding elderly people with nuisance calls while claiming to be selling devices designed to block unwanted calls.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said Elderly Aids Limited (EAL) had deliberately targeted elderly people.

The investigation centres around alleged nuisance text messages (Image: Newsquest)

They said it made nearly 760,000 cold calls to those registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) between May 2024 and February last year to promote call-blocking devices.

The ICO said complaints revealed EAL callers were, “aggressive, misleading, and often failed to identify themselves”.

One complainant reported their elderly father had been persuaded by EAL to sign up to a call-blocker service, paying £139 upfront and a monthly fee of £6.99, according to the ICO.

The TPS allows people and businesses to opt out of unsolicited sales and marketing calls.

It is illegal to make a live marketing call to anyone registered with the TPS, unless they have given permission to be contacted by a specific organisation.

EAL repeatedly ignored requests from the ICO for information and continued to make nuisance calls during the investigation, according to the ICO.

It also tried to strike itself off the Companies House register amid the probe, the ICO said.

ICO head of investigations Andy Curry said: “Not only did this company target vulnerable people who had explicitly asked not to be called – they harassed them to sell call-blocking devices.

“EAL showed a complete disregard for the law and the people they were hounding.

“This penalty should serve as a clear warning to any business that thinks the law does not apply to them, we will hold them to account for both exploiting people in this way and trying to avoid accountability.”

As well as the financial penalty, the ICO said it has issued an enforcement notice ordering EAL to stop making illegal marketing calls and to meet caller identification rules.

Data & Marketing Association director of preference services Russell Roach, said: “People register with the Telephone Preference Service because they want greater control over who can contact them.

“Cases like this demonstrate why those protections are so important.

“Anyone making live marketing calls must respect the choices people have made about their privacy.

“When organisations ignore those preferences and contact individuals who have explicitly opted out of receiving unsolicited sales calls, particularly those who are most vulnerable, they undermine consumer trust and risk causing significant nuisance and distress.”