A HIGH-flying Hampshire telecoms firm has been hit with a £100,000 fine for sending out more than three million spam messages.

Whiteley-based Onecom has been punished by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for sending millions of spam texts about mobile phone upgrades.

The ICO’s investigation came after more than 1,000 complaints from the public.

Between October 26, 2015 and June 2, 2016, 1,050 complaints were made to the 7,726 spam text reporting service, or directly to the ICO, about the text messages.

The ICO found Onecom Limited – s the UK's largest independent business telecommunications provide – broke the law which sets out strict rules about the consent people must give to receive marketing text messages.

The firm could not provide evidence to the ICO explaining the source of the data used to send the 1,050 text messages.

Nor could it provide evidence that it had consent to send the text messages.

Onecom confirmed it had sent 3.3 million text messages between October 1, 2015 and March 31, 2016.

Steve Eckersley, ICO head of enforcement, said: “Spam texts are a real nuisance to millions of people across the country and this firm’s failure to follow the rules drove over 1,000 people to complain.

“I would urge anyone bothered by a spam text to report it, either via the ICO’s website or by forwarding the text to 7726.

"Your reports will help us crack down on those who fail to treat people’s information with the respect it deserves.”

Following the fine, Onecom CEO Darren Ridge issued the following statement: “Onecom operates in a highly regulated sector and is utterly committed to upholding the highest standards in all our communications with our clients and the public.

"Consequently we consider this incident to have been most serious and have undertaken an internal review which has resulted in our further tightening our systems and controls to ensure that there is no repetition.

"We are pleased to note that no subsequent complaints have been received and that the Information Commissioner has acknowledged our remedial measures.”