Horsham firm battered for knowingly using illegal data

The historic market town of Horsham might be best known as the home of Catherine Howard and Percy Bysshe Shelley but now it has joined the long list of nuisance marketing hotspots after a company operating out of the town has been caught red-handed deliberately sending thousands of text messages using illegal data.

ESL Consultancy Services first came to the attention of the Information Commissioner’s Office through a separate investigation into Daniel George Bentley, an affiliate marketer and lead generator.

During the investigation, Bentley set up Taipan Trading in an apparent attempt to appear more legitimate and in the hope that ESL would make the company an appointed representative with the Financial Conduct Authority.

The ICO executed search warrants at addresses linked to Bentley in June 2023 and seized several documents referring to ESL. These included an appointed representative due diligence questionnaire, agreement form and bank account details.

Analysis of the evidence led to the ICO executing a search warrant at ESL’s registered address, seizing mobile phones, laptops, tablets and external storage drives.

Analysis of the devices further identified documents relevant to the ICO investigation, including an appointed representative questionnaire for Taipan Trading, Excel files containing personal information and numerous Skype conversations between ESL and Taipan Trading discussing their business arrangement.

The Skype conversations showed ESL requested details of the opt-in on which Taipan Trading was relying to send the text messages, stating: “the ICO are on everyone at the mo [sic] so as long as we have something to show that’s fine.” Taipan Trading responded stating: “strictly speaking that doesn’t exist yet.”

Taipan Trading also admitted to ESL its business operated non-compliantly, and it also concealed the fact that it had been investigated by the ICO.

Further analysis of the evidence showed that ESL doctored Taipan Trading’s due diligence form when it sent it to the Financial Conduct Authority by removing information that could be deemed unfavourable.

Separately, in December 2023 the ICO reprimanded Daniel George Bentley as a result of him and his company sending over 2.5 million unsolicited text messages to individuals.

Ultimately, the ICO found that between September 2022 and December 2023, ESL used a third party to send marketing text messages without ensuring valid consent was in place to send the messages. In fact, it had 459 different telephone numbers capable of sending up to 546,000 text messages a day.

ESL also took steps to try and conceal the identity of the sender of the messages by using unregistered SIM cards. As a result the ICO received 37,977 complaints.

The company has been slapped with fine of £200,000 for knowingly instigating unlawful loan promotion nuisance text messages being sent to people who had not consented to receive them. It has also been issued with an enforcement notice.

ICO interim director of investigations Andy Curry said: “The evidence we collected during our two search warrants was invaluable, providing us with a clear picture of the illegal activities these two companies were undertaking.

“It became apparent to us very quickly that ESL knew about the direct marketing requirements and our role in enforcing the law, yet they chose to blatantly ignore this for their own financial gain.

“We will not falter in our commitment to protect people by unpicking tangled webs of deceit, as in this case, and taking enforcement action against rogue companies to hold them to account.”