A former undercover officer presented with the Queen’s Police Medal for bravery by Prince Charles says freemasons in the force threatened to derail his career.

Garry Rogers claims masons within Greater Manchester Police (GMP) tried to prevent his crime fighting efforts being recognised and stop him receiving the coveted medal.

He claims he did not receive commendations for bravery because officers he believed to be freemasons wrongly suspected him of blowing the whistle on one of their corrupt colleagues.

Mr Rogers - who during six years as an undercover officer nailed more than 100 criminals, many of them extremely violent - says that GMP’s most senior officers eventually confirmed that masons may have tried to block his progress.