Cold-calling phone company hit with record fine

Keurboom Communications was fined 400,000 by British regulators after making almost 100 million unwelcome phone calls to lines in the UK. The wheeze was to call people late at night and pitch accident compensation claims. The company went into liquidation before anything could be done about it, reports the BBC, but regulators say they plan to recover the fine all the same, and have their eye on company director Greg Rudd.

"The unprecedented scale of its campaign and Keurboom's failure to co-operate with our investigation has resulted in the largest fine issued by the Information Commissioner for nuisance calls," said Steve Eckersley, head of enforcement at the ICO.

Keurboom director Greg Rudd told the Mirror newspaper that he found cold-calling "annoying" but said it was "part of life".

"I don't enjoy receiving them but that doesn't make them illegal," he said.However the ICO said making automatic marketing calls without people's consent was illegal.