AMS Marketing, the company registered to an unassuming bungalow in the small seaside town of Peacehaven, has been forced into liquidation by the High Court after failing to pay a £100,000 fine issued by the Information Commissioner’s Office in August last year.
The firm, run by sole director Elia Bols, was battered by the regulator for making 75,649 calls to people registered with the Telephone Preference Service. The calls urged consumers to make an accident claim, even though there was no evidence they had been involved in an accident in the first place.
The ICO investigation found that AMS Marketing bought lists of data from other companies, but made no checks to find out if any of the people listed were registered with the TPS.
At the time, an ICO spokesman said: “Firms that buy in lists of data are duty-bound to check whether people are registered with the TPS. Firms that fail to make the proper checks, do so at their peril. The ICO can and will take action.”
Bols has held a total of five directorships at companies registered to the Peacehaven address. Three of the firms, Eli & Joyce Ltd, Bols Holdings Ltd and now AMS Marketing Ltd, have either been dissolved or liquidated.
Of the other two, Bols resigned from M&N Sons Ltd, which offers “other retail sale in non-specialised stores” in August 2018. He resigned from claims management company Regional Legal Ltd in January 2017.
In December, the law was changed to allow the ICO to make directors of rogue telemarketing firms personally liable for fines of up to £500,000. Bols is likely to escape this as the fine against AMS was issued four months before the law came into force.
It is not known whether Bols will now face action from the Insolvency Service. The government organisation has so far banned 16 directors of telemarketing firms from running a company for more than 100 years.
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