Removal of key objects from your office desks, the stationery cupboard or software provokes a range of responses.

The estimates that have come in from the Association of British Insurers say that staff theft is costing British SMEs and corporate companies nearly £1 billion annually, and £200 million of that is in computer related products alone. There is, however, a world of difference between the thief who attempts to sneak his computer home and an annoying kleptomaniac stealing your office chair, ruler, calculator and in fact any items left lying around.

"We call it one-way traffic," says Marketing Director, Peter Belmonte at Officeteam, (a firm that offers to cut overheads in organisations by auditing stationery cupboards!) "People take goods away to work on at home and they never come back."

Highlighting the line between bare faced theft and a legitimate perk became the subject of another survey set by Officeteam. Statistics showed that 86% of employees in the fifty firms polled had confessed to lifting the odd calculator and pen, a staggering 75% considered personal use of office supplies as unacceptable.

"Senior managers are the worst," one respondent said. "They are totally blatant and get caught all the time, like schoolboys behind the bike sheds."