Police have recorded nearly 120,000 “non-crime” hate incidents and may have stopped those accused from getting jobs, the Telegraph can disclose.

A High Court judge ruled on Friday the Hate Crime Operational Guidelines, which informs police work nationally, had been unlawfully used to interfere with a man’s freedom of speech.

The guidelines, rolled out six years ago by the College of Policing, state that any action perceived to be motivated by hostility towards religion, race or transgender idenitiy must be recorded “irrespective of whether there is any evidence to identify the hate element”.

Despite police accepting that such incidents are not crimes, they are still logged on a system and can even show up during a DBS check when applying for work.

A total of 119,934 non-crime incidents were formally recorded by 34 police forces in England and Wales between 2014, when the guidance was introduced, and 2019.

By far the most incidents were recorded by South Wales Police, who logged 13,856 cases over the five-year period - exceeding the country’s biggest police force, Scotland Yard, by more than 4,000.

The Metropolitan Police recorded the second most incidents at 9,473, followed by Merseyside Police, at 8,644, and Surrey Police, at 8,256, according to figures obtained under Freedom of Information laws by the Telegraph.

It comes as a former police officer, Harry Miller, won his legal battle against Humberside Police after facing investigation over alleged “transphobic” tweets.

In a landmark ruling, the High Court found the force had a “chilling effect” on the free speech rights of Mr Miller by visiting his place of work and suggesting he may face prosecution.

The married father-of-four was contacted by a ‘community cohesion officer’ last year after a Twitter user complained he had shared a "transphobic limerick".

Mr Justice Julian Knowles compared the actions of the police to the Stasi and Gestapo, as he ruled the tweets were lawful and said there was not “the slightest risk” Mr Miller would commit a criminal offence by continuing to tweet.