Eight BT employees were manacled in London earlier this month after being fingered on suspicion of falsely claiming hundreds of thousands of pounds in overtime from the telecoms giant.

According to The Sun , the unnamed workers were nicked for allegedly setting up a "fake car-clamping business in an elaborate £200,000 swindle".

The Register asked the City of London Police about the cuffings. It told us:

On June 13th City of London Police arrested 8 men in West London on suspicion of a £200,000 expenses and overtime claims fraud against their employer. All are currently on bail.

Police questioned the suspects not only for apparently setting up the bogus car-clamping biz but also for wrongly claiming overtime from BT, the Sun reported.

The paper said that BT had suspended about 30 of its workers after it looked into the allegations of fraud, which is understood to have taken place in West London.

BT's Openreach vans are constantly being slapped with parking fines in London due to their drivers regularly having to leave the vehicles in restricted areas while they carry out house visits.

The company pays out about £1m a year in parking penalties in the capital as its Openreach engineers continue to deploy fibre mainly to streetside cabinets serving premises across London.

BT declined to comment on the story. ®