Len O’Hagan, left, says INM would have preserved the data tapes if the ODCE had shared its information

Independent News & Media (INM) has destroyed the computer tapes at the centre of a data-breach ­controversy that has engulfed the company.

Documents filed by INM to the High Court show that on February 27 it authorised the shredding of 950 tapes, which it insists is standard practice for dealing with obsolete equipment. They were shredded by AMI Waste, a Dublin company, in an operation that lasted almost three hours.

The tapes, which contained the company’s email archive, were removed from its headquarters in 2014 and interrogated by outside consultants on the instructions of Leslie Buckley, INM’s then chairman. The operation was paid for by an offshore company controlled by Denis O’Brien, the biggest shareholder in the media group.

Evidence has emerged that the INM