Staff at an Apple store in Brisbane have been fired amid reports of a “photo-sharing ring” involving both customers and other staff members, but the company denies customers were victims of the breach.

The Courier-Mail reported on Thursday that employees of the Apple store in Carindale had taken photographs of female customers and staff without their knowledge or consent, then shared them with employees at other Queensland stores. The victims were then given a ranking out of 10.

The Courier-Mail said customers had also had photos stolen from their phones.

Apple confirmed that “several” employees of the Carindale store had been fired for a breach of its business conduct policy but said there was no evidence to suggest customers had been the victims.

According to the Courier-Mail, a staff member had noticed a technician looking through a customer’s phone in the repair room at the Apple store in the Westfield mall in Carindale, Brisbane, earlier this month.

It also said a human resources executive had been flown to Australia by Apple to manage the fallout.

One staff member told the paper the “disgusting” practice was possibly occurring at other Apple stores in Queensland and, potentially, Sydney.

A statement provided by Apple to the Courier-Mail before Thursday’s edition went to press confirmed that a “violation of Apple’s business conduct policy” at the Carindale store was being investigated.

It said “several employees” had already been fired as a result of their findings. Efforts by Guardian Australia to elaborate on “several” were unsuccessful.

Apple issued an updated statement later on Thursday that its investigation had not found any evidence that customers were involved in the breach.

“Based on our investigation thus far, we have seen no evidence that customer data or photos were inappropriately transferred or that anyone was photographed by these former employees,” the company said.

“We have met with our store team to let them know about the investigation and inform them about the steps Apple is taking to protect their privacy.”

No more specifics were given.