Scots firm fined £200k for nuisance calls

A Scottish green energy company has been handed a record £200,000 fine after bombarding people with six million nuisance marketing calls.

Home Energy & Lifestyle Management was fined £200,000 for nuisance calls. Picture: Ian Rutherford

Glasgow-based Home Energy & Lifestyle Management breached marketing call regulations with its campaign which “made people’s lives a misery”, said an Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) ruling.

ICO found the company made more than six million calls as part of a massive automated call marketing campaign offering “free” solar panels. Hundreds of people complained to the ICO, which received 242 complaints between October and December last year.

One complainant said they had been waiting for news of a dying relative and could not ignore the phone, and felt powerless against the automated calls.

Another said the calls brought back memories of the morning phone call when their young grandchild had died.

The company also admitted it did not even know what the rules were, the ICO said.

Steve Eckersley, head of enforcement at the ICO, said: “This company’s ignorance of the law is beyond belief. It didn’t even bother to find out what the rules were and its badly thought-out marketing campaign made people’s lives a misery.

“The monetary penalty is for a significant amount because of the clear failings of the company, and the number of people affected by its deliberate and unlawful campaign. It should be a warning to other companies to think before they launch into a campaign.” The ICO said the fine was the largest it had ever issued for nuisance calls.

A statement from Home Energy & Lifestyle Management blamed third-party marketing firms: “We had significant difficulty in fully co-operating with the ICO, owing to the failure of the third-party company to give any information to verify and explain the extent of the calls made.”