Nuisance calls
A company which made almost six million nuisance calls in the space of six months has been fined £850,000.
Accrington-based National Advice Clinic made the calls about noise-induced hearing loss claims between October 2014 and April 2015.
The Claims Management Regulator (CMR), which oversees the compensation claims industry, said the cold-calling was “deliberate and sustained”.
Many of those contacted by the company, which also trades as the Industrial Hearing Clinic and the Central Compensation Office, were on the Telephone Preference Service – designed to stop people receiving cold calls.
As a result, almost 2,000 complaints were made to the telecommunications industry regulator Ofcom.
The CMR, which is based at the Ministry of Justice, has been able to remove licences from claims management companies since 2010 and was given powers to financially penalise companies in December 2014.
A spokesman said it had fined four companies so far, with this case incurring the largest penalty.
Justice Minister Lord Faulks said he was “pleased the regulator has imposed such a substantial fine for such blatant and shocking behaviour”.
