Reportedly the message says "I must apologise for the nature of this call. I would have preferred to have done this on a face-to-face basis," said the message to staff of The Accident Group, which specialised in personal injury claims. "On the time scale available, this has not proved possible."

The staff were instructed to call a number, where a recorded message told them: "All staff who are being retained will be contacted today. If you have not been spoken to you are therefore being made redundant with immediate effect."