A COMPANY that bombarded victims with a record high 146 million illegal nuisance calls in just four months has been fined £350,000 by a watchdog.

Darlington-registered firm Your Money Rights made the automated phone calls about PPI which left those receiving them feeling harassed and threatened, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) said.

The business, which has been registered in offices on Victoria Road since the summer, broke the law because it did not have the consent of the people it was calling and also failed to include the company's name and contact details in its recorded message.

Steve Eckersley, ICO head of enforcement, said: "We're cracking down on illegal automated calls on behalf of the British public. They are a

blight on society that disregards people's right to have their wish for peace and quiet in their own home respected.

"We know people find calls playing recorded messages particularly intrusive because they are unable to speak to a call agent. Your Money Rights should have known that the law around automated calls is stricter than for other marketing calls."

Complainants said the frequency of the calls was unbearable and was driving them "insane" and described feeling "threatened".

Your Money Rights, which has a base in Ammanford, Carmarthenshire, was responsible for the most amount of automated calls to result in an ICO fine.

Its directors are trying to dissolve the company but the watchdog said it was "committed" to recovering the fine.

The ICO said proposed new laws making directors directly responsible for their company's actions "can't come soon enough" because it will stop

them avoiding fines by putting the firm into liquidation.

Mr Eckersley said: "A change in the law to make directors personally liable for illegal marketing calls can't come soon enough.

"If a firm goes out of business to try and duck an ICO fine then they're no longer making troublesome nuisance calls.

"But the new law will increase the tools we have to go after them and hold them fully accountable for the harassment, annoyance and disruption they've caused."

About 45 million PP1 policies - designed to cover loan repayments if the policyholder fell ill or lost their job - were sold over 20 years from 1990.

It was mis-sold on a huge scale to people who did not want or need it - or would not be eligible to claim on it.

The Financial Conduct Authority has set a deadline of August 29, 2019, for the final PPI claims to be made.

John Mitchison of the Direct Marketing Association, that runs the Telephone Preference Service for the IPO, said: "We hope that in the future rogue marketers will face the real threat of prison when abusing consumers in this way, which will be an effective deterrent."