A MARKETING company has been hit with a £100,000 fine for making more than 75,000 cold calls.

AMS Marketing Ltd put in the nuisance calls to people who had opted out of receiving marketing calls by registering with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS).

The company, based in Peacehaven, was fined by the Information Commissioner’s Officer after it bought lists of data from other businesses.

They fell foul of the rules because no checks were made to find out whether any of the people were registered with the anti-spam call service.

One complainant said: “They knew my name and address and claimed I was legally owed circa £1,800 for a non-fault traffic accident, saying we had an accident and they can help with compensation.”

Another said: “They asked for my daughter who has not been driving long, so I found it very stressful and disturbing. Trying yet again to persuade us to claim compensation despite being with TPS and asking them repeatedly not to ring us.”

It is illegal to make marketing calls to people registered with TPS unless they have given consent for a company to do so and the ICO investigation found no evidence of this. An ICO spokesman said: “Firms that buy lists of data are duty-bound to check whether people are registered with TPS. Firms that fail to make the proper checks, do so at their peril.”