Under-caution spam faxer fined over £6,000

Debt firm fax up

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Posted in Law, 21st April 2009 06:02 GMT

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A man who sent hundreds of spam faxes while under caution from privacy regulator the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) faces more than £6,000 in fines for his actions.

Robert Logan's debt recovery agency Clear Debt Solutions (CDS) sent over 800 unwanted faxes after being served with an Enforcement Notice by the ICO in September 2007 demanding that he stop sending the messages.

Logan is a director of Preston-based CDS, which was investigated by the ICO in September 2007 and ordered to stop sending faxes to people who had not consented to receiving them and to people whose numbers were listed by the Fax Preference Service (FPS).

The FPS is a list of numbers whose owners have requested that they not be sent unsolicited marketing communications.

Despite the Enforcement Notice from the ICO, CDS continued to send spam faxes. The ICO and the FPS received 822 complaints after the Notice had been served.

The ICO took legal action against Logan, who admitted 13 breaches of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR). Logan was fined £400 for each breach plus costs. The ICO said his total fine will be £6,274.53.

"Unsolicited marketing faxes can be just as irritating and intrusive as unwanted marketing phone calls," said assistant commissioner at the ICO Mick Gorrill. "This practice is unacceptable and our action against Mr Logan sends out a strong signal to any unscrupulous businesses that flout the rules – we will prosecute for systemic non-compliance with the Data Protection Act.”

Sending spam became a criminal offence for the first time last year when the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations said that it was unfair to make "persistent and unwanted solicitations by telephone, fax, e-mail or other remote media except in circumstances and to the extent justified to enforce a contractual obligation".