Kiely checks out his email - live

An Australian banker caught viewing photographs of a semi-naked model while a colleague was on a live television interview has been spared the sack after an internet campaign to save him.

David Kiely, a broker at Macquarie Bank in Sydney, picked the wrong moment to click on the emailed images of an Australian model, Miranda Kerr. Footage of him perusing the photos was beamed live to viewers of the commercial television network Channel Seven, and quickly became a YouTube hit.

Kiely was clearly visible in the background as his colleague, Martin Lakos, conducted a live interview with Channel Seven, discussing Australian interest rates. Hitherto just an anonymous suit, Kiely became an internet sensation, sparking fevered discussion about his actions.

This weekend Macquarie – known in banking circles as the "millionaires' club" because of the high bonuses earned by some of its staff – announced that, following an internal review, it had decided to retain Kiely's services.

The announcement followed a "Save Dave" campaign led by a London financial website, which urged that Kiely's indiscretion be forgiven, since he "seemed like a nice bloke", the photographs were not hardcore, he had suffered enough, and "there's just too much political correctness in this world anyway". Kerr herself joined the campaign, urging his employers to show him mercy.

There were even suggestions that he had been the victim of a practical joke: Channel Ten reported that one of his emails instructed him to "turn around now". When he did so, he found himself confronted by the television camera.