By Stephanie Condron A foreign businessman who bombarded Britons with 500,000 spam text messages a day has been convicted after being exposed by a Mail on Sunday undercover investigation. But Jayesh Shah, 43, has escaped with just a £4,000 fine – and investigators say he may still be plaguing mobile phone users with unsolicited texts and nuisance calls. Shah, who runs a call centre business based in India, was revealed to be behind thousands of spam messages inviting people to claim compensation for mis-sold payment protection insurance (PPI) in December 2012. He was prosecuted for breaching the Data Protection Act at a trial in May. Judgment was reserved to a hearing last week at Willesden Magistrates’ Court in North-West London, when Shah was found guilty and fined. He did not attend the hearing.
@highlight
Jayesh Shah, 43, fined just for breaching Data Protection Act
@highlight
Bombarded Britons with half a million texts a day
@highlight
Shah runs a call centre business in India and claimed he was exempt from English and Welsh law because he was based abroad
Britons
Britons
Vintels closed down its website last week but Shah is still registered with UK authorities as someone who handles the personal data of @placeholder.