The director of a firm that was liquidated with an unpaid £500,000 fine for making 200million nuisance cold-calls has been given an eight-year ban from running a company.
Duncan Paul, 51, of Glenorchard Road, Balmore, Glasgow, was the director of CRDNN Limited, which The Glazine had revealed to be supplying leads to Kairos-owned Clearwin Ltd on behalf of the group’s installer brands including Zenith, Weatherseal and St Helens Glass .
The firm, based in Clydebank, was fined the maximum £500,000 by the Information Commissioner’s Office in 2020 but went into liquidation without paying the fine.
Duncan Paul’s co-director Stephen Foote, 44, was also banned as a director for eight years in January 2023.
Mike Smith, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said: “Duncan Paul’s company plagued homes and businesses with nuisance cold-calls, disrupting the lives of millions of people. The calls were persistent, totally unsolicited, and to add to people’s frustration, they received further calls when they attempted to opt-out of receiving them. Paul and Foote were the directors of this firm and we have taken robust action to prevent them each from running or managing any company for eight years.”
The Information Commissioner’s Office received almost 3,000 complaints from people during that period via its online reporting tool. A further 411 complaints were received via the online reporting tool of the Telephone Preference Service.
Trevor Callaghan, the ICO’s Director of Enforcement and Investigations, said: “The directors of CRDNN knowingly operated their business with a complete disregard for not only the law but also public safety. They harassed millions of people, causing disruption, annoyance and distress and recklessly affected important services potentially putting the wider public in danger. That’s why their conduct called for the maximum fine possible under the law.”
CRDNN was fined £500,000 for contravening regulation 19 and 24 of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 relating to the use of automated calling systems.
The company went into liquidation in January 2021 with the fine unpaid.
