A LAMPETER home improvement firm which made more than half a million unsolicited marketing calls, including some that were “aggressive” and “upsetting” has been fined £200,000.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said that Home2Sense Ltd made 675,478 nuisance calls between June 2020 and March 2021, offering insulation services to people registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS).

It is against the law to make marketing calls to phone numbers that have been registered with the TPS for more than 28 days, unless the recipient has notified the company that they do not object to receiving such calls.

Home2Sense Ltd told ICO investigators that customer data was acquired from an “unknown source” and blamed its staff for not screening the phone numbers in their database against the TPS.

Following more than 60 complaints from the public, the ICO’s investigation found that the company identified itself with different trading names when calling customers, including ‘Cozy Loft’, ‘Warmer Homes’ and ‘Comfier Homes’. This is also illegal, the ICO said.

The ICO report lists complaints including from one person who was left “distressed” after receiving three calls asking to speak to their late mother who passed away more than 10 years ago about loft insulation.

The company also cold-called someone whose mother had recently died at a house they had inherited.

The person said it was“extremely upsetting to have someone deliberately cold-call me.”

“They said it was not illegal to phone someone on the TPS list and they couldn’t be fined for doing this,” they added.

Another reported that the company “wouldn’t take no for an answer” during the cold-calls.

Ken Macdonald, Head of ICO Regions, said: “Home2Sense’s dismissive attitude, coupled with its attempts to deflect responsibility for compliance with the law onto its staff, shows a complete disregard for people’s privacy rights.

“Some of the complainants described the calls received as ‘aggressive’, and the company caused two complainants to feel distressed and upset when they asked to speak to a relative that had passed away.”

“Business owners operating in this field have a duty to have robust procedures and training in place so the law is followed.

“Attempts to rely on ignorance of the law, or trying to pass the buck onto members of staff or external suppliers, will not be tolerated.”

The ICO, which said Home2Sense “failed to substantively engage with the commisioner’s investigation” has also issued the company with an enforcement notice ordering them to stop making unsolicited marketing calls.