A Welsh company believed to have made 100,000 nuisance calls a day has been ordered to pack it in - or else.

Lat week telecoms regulator Oftel ordered Komtel Ltd to stop making nuisance calls to mobile phones using automatic calling equipment.

The company made very short calls to mobile phones that people did not have time to answer. When they rang the number back to see who had called, punters were either placed in a call queuing system and kept on hold for lengthy periods of time or had services marketed to them.

Either way, those who called got stung for unnecessary charges.

Last month the regulator flagged-up its intention to slam Komtel describing the company's actions as a "blatant misuse of automatic calling equipment to trick consumers into calling the number back and incurring unnecessary charges".

If Komtel fails to heed Oftel order it could face legal action.

In a statement Peter Waller, second in command at Oftel, said: "This final order will stop Komtel using automatic calling equipment to trick consumers into calling a number back and incurring unnecessary charges on phone bills."

He also warned mobile phone users to be on their guard against such scams warning punters to always think twice before returning calls to numbers they did not recognise. ®