Home improvement firms fined £370k for spam calls

Two home improvement firms, thought to be linked to the same director, have been fined £370,000 for making nuisance phone calls.

Thermotech Wall and Loft Surveys Ltd in Romsey, Hampshire, and Jacksons Marketing Ltd in Islington, London, targeted elderly people, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) said.

Hundreds of thousands of illegal sales calls were made to people who had registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS).

Thomas Vickrage, 35, of Bournemouth, was a director of the Romsey firm and is suspected of running Jacksons Marketing Ltd, the regulator added.

Its investigation uncovered WhatsApp messages between Vickrage and an overseas call centre, in which he said he planned to start a new company if complaints were received.

In one exchange, his contact asked: "You mean use TPS data until we get pinged and then close and repeat?"

Vickrage replied: "Haha it's a good way to keep the money rolling for everyone," the ICO reported.

Some victims received several calls a day, from call centres overseas or in Bournemouth, using "robo-call" software with an English voice.

A pre-recorded actor asked questions as if it were a real conversation, warning of health risks from spray foam in lofts or promising government insulation grants.

One complainant told the ICO: "The calls scare me, I don't like them. I am a disabled older woman."

The Romsey firm was fined £240,000 for making 575,000 calls to TPS-registered numbers, while Jacksons Marketing Ltd was ordered to pay £130,000 for more than 230,000 calls.

Andy Curry, ICO head of investigations, said: "These companies... called older people and those who had clearly asked to be left alone, leaving them frightened to answer their own phones.

"Falsely claiming to represent a government scheme to gain people's trust or suggesting their home could be putting their health at risk, are deeply manipulative tactics.

"People have a right to protection from this kind of intrusive and misleading contact."