NTL in the UK is not known for its customer service. Actually that's not fair, it has a reputation for appalling customer service.

But even its low standards were breached back in September when customers phoning one of its call centres were greeted with a rather rude recorded message. Callers were told: "You’re through to NTL customer services. We don’t give a f*** about you. We’re never here. Just f*** off and leave us alone. Get a life." The message was removed but not before several hundred customers heard it

After an urgent investigation the ISP tracked the call to the house of Ashley Gibbin, a 26 old year taxi driver from Teesside. He was charged with sending a grossly offensive message and faced a possible six month sentence.

Yesterday Gibbin was cleared of the charges because a magistrates court ruled the message was not offensive enough.

Gibbin told the Sun newspaper that he'd been on hold for an hour trying to order broadband when he cracked and started hitting buttons at random. This enabled him to change NTL's welcome message to something he felt was more appropriate. Hero.

A spokeswoman for NTL told the Reg the message was only available for a few hours on a Sunday morning and only people in the north-east phoning to register faults would have heard it