A MYSTERY individual has received e-mails intended for the police after registering an address almost identical to that of the Suffolk force.It is feared the person could be sent confidential or sensitive information intended for staff at Suffolk police by accident all because of a full stop.

A MYSTERY individual has received e-mails intended for the police after registering an address almost identical to that of the Suffolk force.

It is feared the person could be sent confidential or sensitive information intended for staff at Suffolk police by accident all because of a full stop.

There has already been cases of messages for police employees ending up in the hands of the unknown individual, and staff are now being warned to make sure they key in the correct address.

The only difference between the two e-mail addresses is the positioning of a dot between the words "Suffolk" and "police".

While staff working for the county's force use the address suffolk.police.uk, it has emerged that a private individual has bought up suffolkpolice.uk.

All Suffolk police workers have been warned to make sure they give out accurate e-mail addresses and that the omission of a dot could lead to confidential messages being read by someone they did not intend to e-mail.

A police spokesman said: "What we are trying to do is make sure our people and key people outside are aware of the correct e-mail address. Our main aim is to make sure people remember the extra dot."

He added that the force had contacted the individual responsible for the similar e-mail address and was working to try and establish how long it had been registered and what could be done to resolve the situation.

"We have had communication with him. We are not investigating a crime and it has not been done to intercept police e-mails," he said.

Norfolk and Essex Police said they were not aware of a similar situation with its respective e-mail or software systems.