A Clydebank firm has been fined £500,000 after making nearly 200 million automated cold calls.

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) fined CRDNN Limited the maximum amount after a raid on their premises in March 2018 revealed the shocking results.

When raiding the premises at the Clydebank business park, computer equipment and documents were seized from CRDNN for analysis.

They were found to be making nearly 1.6million nuisance calls per day about window scrappage, debt management, and window/conservatory/boiler sales between June 1 and October 1, 2018.

The firm came to the attention of the ICO as a result of more than 3000 complaints made about the cold calls.

Andy Curry, head of investigations at the ICO, said: "This company affected the lives of millions of people, causing them disruption, annoyance and distress.

"The volume of calls was immense and to add to people’s frustrations attempting to opt-out of those calls simply compounded their receipt of further calls."

Some of the calls were found to potentially put people's safety at risk as they were made to the Network Rail's Banavie Control Centre.

They clogged up the line for drivers and pedestrians at unmanned level crossings, who were calling to check it was safe to cross the rails.

The calls were all made from so-called ‘spoofed’ numbers, which meant that people who received the calls could not identify who was making them.

The company broke the law by not gaining consent from the phone owners to make those calls and by not providing a valid opt-out.

Mr Curry added: "The directors of CRDNN knowingly operated their business with a complete disregard for the law.

"They did all they could to evade detection, from changing and not updating address details to transferring their operation abroad and attempting to go into liquidation.

"That’s why their conduct called for the maximum fine possible under the law.

“But through the cooperation of the public who brought their complaints to us, we were able to identify those responsible and take action against them.”

The firm has also been issued with an enforcement notice ordering it to comply with the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations laws within 35 days of receipt of the notice.