Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson sent email deemed too offensive by his own IT department

IT was supposed to be a harmless email to a colleague. Instead one tiny word landed Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson in hot water with his own tech department.

IT was supposed to be a harmless and innocent email to a colleague. Instead it landed Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson in hot water with his own tech department.

In an email to Virgin Atlantic’s CEO Craig Kreeger, Sir Richard used the word “bollocks”.

But he received a bounce-back from his IT department informing him that his email couldn’t be delivered.

The reason?

Bollocks was considered a swear word and therefore deemed offensive.

The move annoyed the entrepreneur especially because he didn’t consider “bollocks” a swear word in the first place.

On his blog, Sir Richard wrote: “I pointed out to Craig that we once won a court case that proved the word ‘bollocks’ was not rude or profane.

“A Nottingham record store displayed The Sex Pistols’ masterpiece, Never Mind the Bollocks, and the police took us to court, claiming ‘bollocks’ was a derivative of ‘testicles’.”

He goes on to write that he had contacted a linguistics expert at Nottingham University who told him “bollocks had nothing to do with balls” and was actually a nickname given to priests in the 18th century.

Fortunately for Sir Richard, his colleague found the story equally hilarious, and the pair are now on a mission to convert their “over zealous” IT department.

“Craig loved the story, and is getting his IT team to correct the email block so we can all continue to use the word bollocks in the future,” Sir Richard said.

The Virgin boss’s IT department may not have approved of this stunt either: Tony McDonough

His blog and later Facebook post earned him several fans and commentators including Rob Maughan.

“I never use the words Bollocks, cause I’m ausie.. BUT I’ll like you’re style RB, never come up trump’s to deliver a great story, I would imagine attributes to a lot of you’re success,” he posted in response.

Another user saw the funny side of it all.

Martin Shaw posted: “So what we are saying is that the phrase I used over the phone to describe the ridiculous constraints on when you can spend your Virgin Atlantic miles means I called the situation ‘a big pile of priests’. Wow, no wonder your customer restrictions team didn’t understand me. I shall call them again to clarify. I genuinely meant testicles.”

To be fair to Sir Richard, there are a lot worse emails that have been sent that have been deemed far ruder than his.

UK lawyer Claire Swire sent her lawyer boyfriend Bradley Chait a saucy and intimate email.

Unfortunately for both of them, he forwarded the lewd email to half a dozen colleagues who thought it was better off in cyber space.

Sir Richard is known for being a little out there, but his IT department’s response to his own email shocked him.