Bid to shame firms on calling cards

A campaign is launched today to name and shame mobile phone company bosses accused of failing to combat the plague of prostitutes' "tart cards".

Westminster council has taken the unprecedented step of printing seven bosses' names and business numbers on thousands of "calling cards", which will be sent to shops and residents.

The companies are being highlighted for refusing to disconnect numbers from their networks that are printed on cards advertising prostitutes' services. The cards are often seen plastered over phone boxes. Westminster says there has been an "epidemic" of them in its area and they are linked to crime.

The chief executives named on the council's cards are: Barry Elson at Telewest; Arun Sarin at Vodafone; Sanjiv Ahuja at Orange; Dave McGlade at 02UK; Bob Fuller at 3; and Simon Duffy at NTL. Also named is T-Mobile UK's managing director Brian McBride.

Westminster wants people to ring the networks directly with their complaints over prostitutes' cards.

Kit Malthouse, deputy council leader, said authorities were driven to the measure out of "sheer desperation". He said: "We have been hit by an epidemic of prostitutes' cards. Last year 1.2 million were removed from phone boxes in Westminster at a cost of ?250,000.

"Mobile phone company chief executives must take personal responsibility for the fact these cards contain numbers their companies provide. Corporate responsibility means action, not just token gestures."

Since 2001 BT has cut off all numbers appearing on tart cards in their phone boxes. In 2001, 98 per cent of such numbers found in phone boxes were on BT lines. Now, that figure is 10 per cent.

But mobile phone networks seem reluctant to take the same measures as BT. Mr Malthouse said: "Prostitutes' cards have a clear link to crime yet the companies keep coming up with figleaf excuses not to bar calls.

"We are appealing to them to help us to fight illegal activity voluntarily, before we seek legislation to force them to act."

Mobile phone firms today defended their stance. A spokesman for O2 said: "We are not convinced that cutting the phone lines will cut prostitution. The cost of reprinting cards and changing numbers is not a drastic enough measure to prevent carding." Telewest insisted it had a "balanced approach" to the issue. A spokesman said: "We feel disappointed Westminster feel the need to do this. We dispute the claim that we fail to act but we have to look into each case - how long it takes depends on the case."

NTL said it was working with Westminster to address the problem, adding: "We take our legal responsibilities very seriously. But, in this instance, the offence occurs when the phone number is advertised, not when it is issued by a telecoms operator."

T-Mobile, 3, Orange and Vodafone did not provide a comment.