Bungling spies and undercover cops admit up to 250 blunders while snooping on crime and terror suspects
SPOOKS and undercover cops have admitted making up to 250 blunders while spying on crime and terror suspects, an official report shows.
MI5 officers alone made at least 136 mistakes, called “relevant errors”.
They include ten while conducting “property interference and intrusive surveillance” ops, such as planting bugs in the homes of suspects.
The agency confessed that 23 errors were made while conducting “directed surveillance”.
The MI5 website says this “involves the covert monitoring of someone’s movements, conversations and other activities”.
It adds: “This work is carried out by highly skilled specialist surveillance officers who may work in vehicles, on foot or from fixed observation posts.”
Mistakes were also made by the Met Police, the National Crime Agency, MI6 and GCHQ.
Blunders included phone numbers being written down incorrectly and mistakes with Internet Protocol addresses – which identify a specific device.
The details were revealed in the recently published Investigatory Powers Commissioner’s annual report for 2022.
The watchdog was set up in 2017 to scrutinise spying powers used by intelligence agencies.
Its report also revealed up to 25 child “covert intelligence sources” had been recruited.
The report said: “Juveniles were assisting with investigations tackling the supply of Class A drugs and firearms.”