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A Met Police unit may have destroyed a “warehouse full of documents” relating to undercover policing, new papers reveal.

The allegations are made in legal submissions by victims of police spying who say Scotland Yard continue to try to cover up the extent of the scandal.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission is currently investigating claims that files had been destroyed despite a specific instruction they should be preserved.

Documents are alleged to have been shredded over a number of days in May 2014, two months after Theresa May had ordered a public inquiry into police spies.

The inquiry, led by Lord Justice Pitchford, follows a string of revelations about the conduct of undercover officers from the Met’s Special Demonstration Squad, who were deployed to spy on political groups.

The Met has apologised after it emerged officers took the identities of dead babies and had children with women they were targeting.

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A submission lodged this month by Dan Squires QC, on behalf of some of those allegedly spied on, states that the inquiry has found police records are “very thin” in the period before the mid 1990s.

Mr Squires adds: “This is in direct contrast to what [lawyers for the victims] were told in 2012 at a meeting with officers from the MPS Department of Professional Standards, namely that they had a ‘warehouse full of documents’ pertaining to the SDS.”

The submission, made in preparation for an inquiry hearing due next week, said victims felt “profound frustration and increasing disillusionment” with the process.

It adds: “Three years after the Inquiry was announced and two years after it was formerly established, those who were spied upon still have no new information about what happened to them.”

Scotland Yard had “repeatedly sought to stifle the Inquiry’s effectiveness and prevent any details of wrongdoing in undercover activities being made public”, Mr Squires said.

(Image: PA)

The force is questioning the unprecedented size of the probe and says it needs months to assess which former officers need their identities protected. Public evidence hearings may not now start before 2018.

Mr Squires said of the delays: “Many are angry and frustrated that the wrongdoing committed by the [undercover officers] is still being hidden by the perpetrators from wide public knowledge and that the [victims] are being denied access to information about how they were spied upon and who was responsible.”

The IPCC is also investigating claims that the Met deployed hackers to illegally access the emails of campaigners. An anonymous source, thought to be a serving detective, claims hundreds of accounts were spied on. Officers later shredded documents to cover up the alleged crime, it is claimed.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "The MPS wishes to assist the Inquiry to fulfil its terms of reference and is responding in line with its timescales and also providing information, including extensive disclosure voluntarily.

"The task is unprecedented given the many thousands of documents and decades of operational activity that the Inquiry is considering. We have a significant team of officers and lawyers who are working hard to provide our fullest possible support.

"Like all concerned, we want the Inquiry to progress as swiftly as is possible given the complex and sensitive subject matter it is considering."