A property renovation boss who caused his company to make more than 110,000 unsolicited marketing calls has been banned for 5 years
Jonathon De Sousa (29), of Barnton, Northwich, was the director of Xternal Property Renovations Ltd, a property repairs and maintenance company.
From its incorporation in August 2015, the company relied heavily on direct marketing techniques – cold-calling members of the public to advertise their services – to generate business.
Xternal Property Renovations Ltd should have used the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) list before making these calls to screen out individuals who had elected not to receive them.
The renovations company did not access the list, however, and within 3 months in 2015 made over 110,000 calls to people registered with the TPS, who should not have received them.
The Information Commissioners Office (ICO) received 133 complaints about the unsolicited calls and, following an investigation, the regulators concluded that Xternal Property Renovations were in breach of the Privacy and Electronic Communications regulations.
The maintenance company failed to provide the ICO with evidence that they had acted correctly and, in January 2017, the ICO informed Xternal Property Renovations that it was going to fine the company £80,000.
Before the penalty could be levied, however, Jonathon De Sousa placed the company into Creditors Voluntary Liquidation in March 2017.
An Insolvency Service investigation into Jonathon De Sousa’s conduct following the liquidation revealed that Xternal Property Renovations had also not paid £250,000 worth of taxes.
On 30 July 2019 the Secretary of State accepted a 5-year disqualification undertaking from Jonathon De Sousa after he did not dispute that he had caused his company to fail to comply with Privacy and Electronic Communications regulations and failed to pay the appropriate levels of tax.
Effective from 20 August 2019, he is prohibited from being involved in the formation, management, or promotion of a company without permission from the court.
Anthea Simpson, Chief Investigator for the Insolvency Service, said:
David Clancy, ICO’s Investigations Group Manager, said:
Notes to Editors
Jonathon De Sousa is of Barnton, Northwich and his date of birth is January 1990.
Xternal Property Renovations Ltd (Company No. SC513380).
The direct marketing actions of Xternal Property Renovations Limited were in breach of regulations 21 and 24 of the Privacy and Eletronic Communications Regulations 2003.
In order to conduct direct marketing legally, companies must apply to the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) for a licence annually. The TPS then provides licenced companies with a list of telephone numbers that cannot be used for direct marketing, as their owners have withdrawn their consent to receive those calls.
Disqualification undertakings are the administrative equivalent of a disqualification order but do not involve court proceedings. Persons subject to a disqualification order are bound by a range of restrictions.