Glasgow boiler company fined £180,000 for nuisance calls

A boiler company in Glasgow that made 2.6 million unwanted calls promoting its services and products has been fined £180,000 by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

FEP Heatcare Ltd made calls which played a recorded message promoting the company’s products and services.

ICO investigators were able to trace the calls to the Glasgow-based company even though the phone messages did not identify the caller.

Ken Macdonald, assistant commissioner for Scotland, said: “This company was already on our hit list. FEP Heatcare thought they could avoid detection by hiding their identity, but we tracked them down and have taken action.”

FEP Heatcare Ltd first came to the attention of the ICO in February 2015 when it appeared on a list compiled by the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) of the top 20 most complained about nuisance call companies.

Despite a warning from the ICO that it must operate within the rules or face action, FEP Heatcare deliberately broke the rules again, this time making marketing calls playing a recorded message.

Calls that play a recorded message must only be made to people who have given the organisation their permission to receive this type of call. FEP Heatcare admitted it did not have that consent.

The ICO found that FEP instigated 2,692,217 unwanted automated calls between April and July 2015.

Mr Macdonald said: “We know people hate nuisance calls and what this company did made people angry enough to complain.

“The kind of calls FEP Heatcare was making – recorded and about energy services – generated the most complaints to the ICO in February this year. Combined with automated calls about PPI, they made up 66 per cent of our recorded complaints.”

The ICO has also issued a “stop” notice to FEP Heatcare to ensure it does not make any further nuisance automated marketing calls. If it does not comply with the notice, the company could face court action.