ICO fines maximum £500,000 for
company linked to over a billion
lead-gen nuisance calls
3rd March 2020

A company recently revealed as sales lead supplier to defunct Kairos Group brands including Zenith, Weatherseal and St Helens Glass last year has been fined £500,000 by the Information Commissioner for making nearly 200million nuisance calls on matters including windows, conservatories and scrappage in 2018.

The ICO raided CRDNN Limited in March that year and seized computer equipment and documents for further analysis. However, the business continued to make the calls even after the raid and investigators discovered it was making nearly 1.6 million calls per day between 1 June and 1 October 2018.

Documents issued by the ICO however add that three individuals controlling the company were known to the Commissioner to have conducted through various companies 1.233billion connected calls since 2013.

An enforcement notice served on CRDNN Ltd identifies it as being formerly known as Contract Reach Digital Ltd. This company was identified in reports in The Glazine last year as being behind a number of websites claiming to promote ‘windows scrappage’ and other supposed subsidies but supplying leads to Kairos-owned Clearwin Ltd on behalf of the group’s installer brands read story. A spokesperson for the ICO told The Glazine that it was outside the remit of the investigation to say who the resulting leads from the 2018 telephone operation were intended for except that documents say the leads were sold to ‘further businesses’.

The calls were all made from so-called ‘spoofed’ numbers, which came up on caller ID simply as ‘International’. An automatic message would play inviting the recipient to press one key for further information or another to opt out.

The ICO says company broke the law by not gaining consent from the phone owners to make those calls and by not providing a valid opt out. The adds that some of the calls potentially put people’s safety at risk as they were made to Network Rail’s Banavie Control Centre, and clogged up the line for drivers and pedestrians at unmanned level crossings.

Andy Curry, Head of Investigations at the ICO, said: “This company affected the lives of millions of people, causing them disruption, annoyance and distress. The volume of calls was immense and to add to people’s frustrations attempting to opt out of those calls simply compounded their receipt of further calls.

“The directors of CRDNN knowingly operated their business with a complete disregard for the law. They did all they could to evade detection, from changing and not updating address details to transferring their operation abroad and attempting to go into liquidation. That’s why their conduct called for the maximum fine possible under the law.

“But through the cooperation of the public who brought their complaints to us, we were able to identify those responsible and take action against them.”