The largest private employer in Brighton has sacked more staff for email abuse after a woman was dismissed for inviting a boss to a porn party.

American Express (Amex) has refused to say exactly how many workers have been fired for misusing its email system but said a handful had been given their marching orders in the past two weeks.

The nature of the offences has not been revealed.

The company, which has bases in Brighton and Burgess Hill, hit the headlines after we revealed one of its employees had been dismissed for accidentally inviting a manager to a saucy party by email.

Rachael Fountain inadvertently sent an email to a finance director who shared a friend's name.

The 22-year-old had been featured on the Channel 4 show Sex Tips For Girls with her boyfriend Pascal Sharples. To celebrate, they organised a "porn party" at their home in Queen's Gardens, North Laine, Brighton.

Their invitation featured a picture of a Fifties pin-up and invited people to come dressed as "porn stars, prossies, pimps, gimps, flashers, slutty schoolgirls and anything sleazy and cheesy".

The email arrived in the finance director's basket and Rachael soon received written confirmation of her sacking from employment agency Adecco for gross misconduct.

Just two weeks after Rachael's dismissal, The Argus was told a number of other staff had been sacked by the company.

An Amex spokeswoman said: "A small number of employees have been dismissed for email misconduct. That number is less than ten."

She would not confirm from which sites the staff were sacked but said when staff joined the company and signed a contract the terms and conditions of using the email system were included within it.

If that contract was breached they could be dismissed.

Rachael said she had been told by friends at Amex's Brighton offices that other employees had lost their jobs following her dismissal.

She said: "I had heard they had suspended other people after they sacked me.

"I suppose they had to show a level playing field and treat other people who had been sending emails in the same way."

The Amex spokeswoman said: "This is not directly related to the Rachael Fountain incident but applies to the same policy regarding the inappropriate use of company email."