Italy's highest court has decided to ban the last verbal resort of the Italian elite when challenged by social inferiors only doing their job.From now on, anyone who tries to avoid a speeding ticket or push past a difficult secretary to speak to the boss using the subtle threat, "Do you know who I am?" could be sued.

A judge in Rome's Court of Cassation this week ruled in favour of a Sicilian lawyer's organisation that disciplined one of its members for using the phrase to try to jump the queue for the photocopier.

Named only as Nicol? V, the lawyer, in a hurry and angry at a law graduate described as Concetta R for not moving aside to let him make his copies first, tried to threaten her with the class-ridden phrase: "Lei non sa chi sono io".

The woman complained of harassment to the lawyers' order of Caltagirone which found in her favour and the lawyer was duly disciplined.

Infuriated, Nicol? V decided to challenge the decision by taking the case as high as he could, only to be disappointed by the high court's decision.

Italians often like to sneer at the British class system, but the vestiges of its own rigid social structures, dating from the patricians and plebians of ancient times, are still in evidence today.

Besides the hundreds of barons and countesses who still draw social respect from their title even under a republic, professionals such as doctors, lawyers and even journalists are called by their title.

"Usually the people who use this phrase are either out of touch with reality or they don't count at all," said Fulvio Sarzana, a Roman lawyer.

"Anybody who really is someone moves with a little more caution."

The egotistic phrase is more likely to be used today by aspiring media types and enriched politicians than by aristocrats.

Gabriella Carlucci, a television presenter turned MP with Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party, was widely mocked for trying the magic line with a Roman traffic warden.

The official had stopped her silver Porsche after the last general election and was treated to the offending question.

"Do you know who I am?" is a famous line from a 1960s film The Traffic Warden by the much-loved actor Alberto Sordi. He played a warden who stops the local mayor for speeding. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/01/14/wio14.xml

Nicolo' V mi sta proprio antipatico