diff --git a/Classes/Service/MailTemplateService.php b/Classes/Service/MailTemplateService.php
index 64c7a26aa6c63e32a0d006d3f086ac2e9166a14b..032d867e7e5b55190ba40af70cc620c932c1e9b8 100644
--- a/Classes/Service/MailTemplateService.php
+++ b/Classes/Service/MailTemplateService.php
@@ -167,9 +167,12 @@ class MailTemplateService {
 		$emailBody = $emailView->render();
 
 		if ($this->ignoreMailQueue) {
+			// insert <br /> tags, but replace every instance of three or more successive breaks with just two.
+			$emailBody = nl2br($emailBody);
+			$emailBody = preg_replace('/(<br[\s]?[\/]?>[\s]*){3,}/', '<br /><br />', $emailBody);
 
 			$this->mailMessage->setSubject($this->subject);
-			$this->mailMessage->setBody(nl2br($emailBody), 'text/html');
+			$this->mailMessage->setBody($emailBody, 'text/html');
 			$this->mailMessage->send();
 		} else {
 			$this->addMailToMailQueue($emailBody);