Horsham company director behind 546,000 spam texts a day banned

A Horsham business chief who presided over a scheme delivering up to 546,000 spam texts a day has been banned from acting as a company director. Leanne Richardson ran ESL Consultancy Services Ltd, a West Sussex-based firm that contracted another business to send promotional messages promoting high-interest loans. The scheme produced about 546,000 texts daily from September 2022 to December 2023, generating thousands of complaints—37,977 in total. Richardson, 44, of The Boulevard in Horsham, has been disqualified for six years following action by the Information Commissioner’s Office. ESL was fined £200,000 by the ICO in December 2024 but entered liquidation the following May without payment.