This month it was widely reported in the UK media that an employee at Barclays Wealth and Investment Management got into hot water for threatening in an email to “steal” ideas from Nutmeg, an internet start-up company offering to manage portfolios for people with as little as £1,000 to invest.

The employee told a friend who had recommended Nutmeg: "Signed up a few weeks ago - cool tools on their site. We're going to steal them." Unfortunately, he accidentally emailed his reply to the Nutmeg website.