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Press release

Boss of home improvements firm which made thousands of cold calls banned from being a director

Directorship ban until 2034 after failure to pay ICO fine

From:
The Insolvency Service
Published:
15 September 2026

  • Home2Sense Limited, made 675,478 calls to numbers which had blocked cold callers  

  • The company then failed to pay a £200,000 fine imposed by the Information Commissioner’s Office 

  • Director, Carl Tingley, has now been banned from running companies for eight years 

THE boss of a home improvements firm which made more than 600,000 calls to people who had blocked nuisance numbers then failed to pay a £200,000 fine, has been banned from being a director. 

Lampeter-based Home2Sense Limited, made 675,478 calls to numbers listed on the Telephone Preference Service between June 2020 and March 2021, with staff using false names or failing to identify where they were actually calling from. 

The Information Commissioner’s Office fined the company £200,000 in 2022 for the calls trying to sell loft insulation, but the fine was never paid and the company went into compulsory liquidation. 

Following an investigation by the Insolvency Service, the company’s sole director, Carl Tingley, 39, who is now of Benning Avenue, Dunstable, has been banned from being a director for eight years. 

Neil North, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said: “Carl Tingley failed to ensure that Home2Sense complied with regulations to protect members of the public from nuisance calls. 

As a result of deliberately undertaking such an extensive cold calling campaign, the company received a large fine which went unpaid and led to the failure of Home2Sense. 

Tingley’s actions caused distress to members of the public and ultimately caused his company to fail as a result, so it is right that he should be banned from controlling any more companies for the next eight years.

Andy Curry, Head of Investigations at the ICO, said: “We welcome the decision to disqualify Carl Tingley as a company director. 

Home2Sense Limited made hundreds of thousands of nuisance marketing calls to people who had specifically registered to avoid them, using a list of numbers bought from an unknown source with no regard for whether this was lawful. 

Our Financial Investigation Unit works closely with the Insolvency Service to bring companies and directors to account, particularly where they fail to pay fines imposed for unlawful nuisance marketing. By disrupting the non-compliant activities of directors such as Carl Tingley, we can help ensure they can’t easily resurface under a different name and continue to cause further harm to people.

Home2Sense Limited was set up in 2019 and entered compulsory liquidation in 2022 with liabilities of £200,000. 

The company initially claimed the number of inappropriate calls it made was ‘relatively low’ and had either been made by staff who were training or who had since been dismissed. 

But investigations by the Insolvency Service show the company was using a list of numbers which Tingley had bought from a man known only as ‘Chris’ for £500. 

In interviews with Insolvency Service investigators, Tingley claimed he did not know his company should not call the blocked numbers and said he thought the list he bought from ‘Chris’ was ‘good’. 

But when his case was heard at the High Court in London, the judge agreed to ban Tingley for eight years, saying the way the company had been run was lamentable. 

Tingley’s eight year ban began on September 15. 

Further information