The Information Commissioners Office (ICO) has issued its largest ever fine after ruling a Scottish green energy company broke marketing call regulations.

Cambuslang-based Home Energy & Lifestyle Management (HELM) was fined £200,000 after an ICO investigation discovered it made over six million calls as part of an automated marketing campaign offering 'free' solar panels.

HELM is listed as one of the authorised assessors by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) as part of the Green Deal initiative.

An organisation should have people's permission, which specifically names the company concerned, in order to make automated calls.

However, the ICO found this wasn't the case, with the company admitting it didn't even know what the rules were.

In just over two months from October to December 2014, the ICO received 242 complaints.

-- Advertisement --

One complainant stated they were waiting for news of a terminally ill family member and couldn’t ignore the phone, and felt powerless against the automated calls. Another talked of the calls bringing back memories of the morning phone call when their young grandchild had passed away.

One other person said they felt like their home had been invaded as the answer machine filled up with calls from the company.

Often, the calls were repeated and it was not always possible to connect to a person, or steop the calls by pressing an option button.

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. Direct marketing campaigns can be run within the law with a little thought and there's plenty of advice available to companies in the ICO's website."

In a statement from its lawyer, HELMs said: "Helms 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."

It added it would appeal against the ruling and take action against the other company.

(LM/CD)