No one is going to fund a lavish lifestyle of foreign villas and Aston Martin sport cars by stealing paper clips from their employer's stationery cupboard.

But the staggering fraud perpetrated by City PA Joyti De-Laurey - which netted her �4,303,259 - represents just the pinnacle of the UK's mountain of workplace theft.

Post-It Notes, result!

British workers are the magpies of Europe, with two-thirds regarding a bit of sticky fingeredness as acceptable (the average for the whole continent is just 49%).

Up to �1.2bn-worth of property goes home with employees each year, according to a survey conducted by an office supplies company.

Though carrying away your office computer or clearing the supermarket shelves when the manager's back is turned is barefaced theft, what if you just add a few extra croutons to your soup in the staff canteen?

In the soup

Brain surgeon Terence Hope was recently suspended during a high profile - and much derided - investigation into just such an incident. The saga gripped the nation, until Mr Hope was cleared.

Welcome to the grey area of workplace honesty. Are you a tea-leaf if you call your best friend on the office phone or slip your Mothers' Day card through the franking machine?

Employers owe it to themselves to set a very clear policy on such things, says Ben Willmott of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. "It is essential to set out what is acceptable behaviour."

Calling Tony for work or Jeb for a chat?

Culture is also important, says Mr Willmott. Do as I say, not as I do, won't work. "Consistency is vital. You cannot justify a policy on phone use, for instance, if that policy is being breached by managers."

Managers should also be aware that happy workers are more honest. "If employees feel they are being treated fairly and paid adequately, they are less likely to push the boundaries of what is acceptable," says Mr Willmott.

But if you want to know exactly what you can and can't get away with, you might not find enlightenment in your contract, says barrister and employment law specialist Jonathan Swift.

"Some contracts deal with this issue, setting 'sensible' limits for personal phone calls, but most are silent on the topic."

If you get caught dialling up for your daily 30-minute chat to Auntie Doris in Sydney, will you be clearing your desk straight away?

"Most of these sort of cases that are brought to me involve employers who have found someone making an undue number of calls, asked them to stop and been ignored. They can then take disciplinary action not for theft, but because a reasonable instruction has not be followed."