Financial services company LADH Limited has been fined £50,000 by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for sending tens of thousands of spam text messages.

An investigation found the action to be in breach of Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR).

Over a six-week period in March and April 2022, LADH sent more than 31,000 text messages without valid consent. Most of these messages did not offer an opportunity for the recipients to opt out, which is also unlawful.

The ICO has served LADH with an enforcement notice to stop sending direct marketing messages without valid consent, in addition to issuing a monetary penalty notice of £50,000.

Head of Investigations at the ICO, Andy Curry, said: “Sending unsolicited direct marketing messages is illegal and can be frustrating and distressing for people. All organisations using direct marketing messages are responsible for ensuring they have valid consent to contact every recipient.”

There were 106 complaints made to Mobile UK’s Spam Reporting Service by people who had received the unwanted messages.

During the investigation, LADH claimed it had received a verbal assurance that the data it had received from a third party contained details of people who had consented to being contacted – though it did not have any written confirmation of that consent.

“Relying on third-party claims of consent, without undertaking checks, leaves organisations open to our enforcement action if it turns out that people have, in actual fact, not given valid consent to be contacted,” added Curry.

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