A claims handling company that bombarded consumers with 75m nuisance phone calls in four months has been fined £350,000 by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

Miss-sold Products UK made the automated calls promoting its payment protection insurance (PPI) claims service without the recipients’ consent, which is against the law, the ICO said..

It said the company also failed to identify itself in the calls, and used “added value” numbers which generate revenue when an individual returns a missed call.

The ICO received 146 complaints from the public about Miss-sold Products. Some people were called on multiple occasions, others said they were unable to opt out of receiving the calls.

Some were distressed that calls late at night could have been from family or those to whom they provided care.

The director of Miss-sold Products – which had moved its registered office from Milford Haven in Wales to Darlington, County Durham – had applied to strike the company off the Companies House register. The ICO blocked the move

to allow options to be considered for recovery of the fine, and for full scrutiny the director’s actions.

ICO enforcement group manager Andy Curry said: “This company blatantly ignored the laws on telephone marketing, making a huge volume of intrusive calls over a short period of time and without any apparent attempt to ensure they had the consent of the people they were harassing.

“The ICO will come down hard on rogue operators who want to treat the law and the UK public with contempt.”

Earlier this month it emerged that British consumers received 2.2bn nuisance phone calls and texts from pensions, PPI and cash-for-crash claims firms in 2017, according to an analysis of Ofcom data.

The ICO has called on the government to bring forward plans to introduce personal liability for directors as a matter of urgency.