Director behind 546,000 spam texts a day banned

The boss of a firm behind more than half-a-million spam texts a day has been banned as a company director.

Leanne Richardson ran ESL Consultancy Services Ltd, which hired another business to send the messages to customers.

The 44-year-old's West Sussex-based company promoted high-interest loans through the messages - 546,000 a day from September 2022 to December 2023, prompting 37,977 complaints.

Richardson, of The Boulevard, Horsham, has been disqualified for six years.

ESL was fined £200,000 by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) in December 2024 but went into liquidation the following May without having paid anything.

The ICO also handed out enforcement notices to Taipan Trading Ltd and its sole director Daniel Bentley, which were the senders of the texts.

ESL tried to hide the identity of the sender by using unregistered SIM cards.

ICO investigations revealed Bentley and his company sent more than 2.5 million unsolicited direct marketing texts in 2022 and 2023.

Insolvency Service chief investigator, Simon Gillett, said: "Illegal spam texts are not just a nuisance. They can cause severe anxiety and distress to vulnerable people.

"Leanne Richardson and her company may not have actually sent the texts but there is no doubt they were the driving force behind the operation.

"Richardson has demonstrated she is unfit to be a company director."

ICO investigations chief, Andy Curry, said: "Leanne Richardson was director of a company that knew the law but deliberately chose to ignore it for financial gain.

"As in this case, complainants tell us about the distress that unlawful marketing messages can cause."

The Secretary of State for Business and Trade, Peter Kyle, accepted a disqualification undertaking from Richardson, and her ban started on Tuesday.

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