Eleven workers at Jaguar's Halewood, UK factory are facing the sack, with another 19 lined up for possible disciplinary action, after circulating "inappropriate" emails around the office.

Jaguar does not comment on what kind of "inappropriate material" had been sent, although an icLiverpool source claims the mails contained porn images.

Several firms have been in the headlines over similar email issues, especially after the famous Claire Swire debacle last December.

Royal & Sun Alliance sacked 10 people and suspended 77 for emailing pornographic material. Similarly, Merrill Lynch had to dismiss 15 people in 2000 after they were caught circulating pornography.

In January, the manager of a posh member's club was caught out for emailing a request regarding a potential "asshole" customer to her secretary and then accidentally sent it to the asshole in question.

Email shenanigans are not confined to office workers; Mrs Evans found her spot in the limelight in January after sending a vitriolic email to her husband's entire contact list (including his bosses and key customers), describing him in less than polite terms.

March saw another City firm embroiled in controversy when a joke email emotionlessly listed replacements for a murdered employee. In the same month, a Credit Lyonnais investment analyst got the chop after sending off an email to some clients slagging off his boss and was silly enough to include his boss' email address on the message.

Financiers, it seems, have an issue with restraining themselves on email. In May, Peter Chung from the Carlyle Group decided to resign after an explicit email charting his sexploits in Korea did its time circling the world, boasting about how he was going to "f@*k every hot chick in Korea over the next 2 years". ®

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