A BRADFORD loans firm has been fined for sending almost a million nuisance texts to potential customers.

Provident Financial was fined £80,000 by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in relation to the texts, sent on its behalf to promote its Satsuma Loans.

The company, which has its headquarters in Godwin Street, employed third party affiliate companies to send 999,057 unsolicited text messages which was against the law as the recipients had not consented to receive such messages.

The investigation was started following 285 complaints to the spam reporting service between April 6 and October 13 2015.

The ICO found that one of Provident’s affiliates had sent 868,393 unsolicited texts while another sent 130,664.

It is believed that the full scale of the contravention could be significantly higher as it is likely that other affiliates sent out many more.

Steve Eckersley, the ICO's head of enforcement, said: “The law is clear. You can’t send marketing texts to people who have not signed up to receive them.

“Being bombarded with texts you didn’t ask for and don’t want is an intrusion into people’s privacy, an irritation and, in the worst cases can be upsetting.

”Companies have no excuse whatsoever for sending nuisance texts, whether they do it themselves or employ someone else to do it for them.”

A spokesman for Provident said: "PPC is sorry for the irritation this has caused to the individuals concerned.

"Although the ICO found that the contravention was not deliberate, PPC takes this contravention extremely seriously.

"It has reviewed its marketing processes and put in place procedures designed to prevent such conduct happening again."