Staff make £25m of sex line calls

Employees are making 15,000 calls to sex and chat lines per hour - adding up to £25million a year on company phone bills.

Researchers at British Telecom found 35million calls to premiumrate phone lines were made from workers' desks last year.

Most calls to sex, chat and TV vote lines cost about £1.50 a minute.

Financial advisers, car dealers and hotel staff were most likely to make illicit calls at work, a survey found.

Staff in London, Birmingham, Leicester and Chelmsford were the worst culprits. Those in Norwich, Wrexham, Milton Keynes and Sheffield were the most honest.

BT said the number of calls being made to premium-rate lines showed bosses had to take greater control over non-business phone use.

Craig Rowland, of BT Business, added: 'For many companies, the amount of premium-rate calls can cause an unexpected shock.'

The telecoms giant has launched new Billing Analyst and Call Alert services which allow subscribers to monitor premium-rate calls and crack down on those responsible.

'Some firms bar certain types of calls while others find a warning can do the trick,' Mr Rowland added.