The mother of a missing RAF airman claims she was misled by police investigating her son's disappearance on five separate occasions in a scathing Facebook post.

Nicola Urquhart, 48, the mother of Corrie McKeague who went missing six months ago in Suffolk, has voiced her concerns about errors in the handling of the case.

The serving police officer from Dunfermline said she was grateful the search for her 23-year-old son was underway but insisted that it should have started much earlier.

Ms Urquhart also criticised a claim by Suffolk Police that they had secured the landfill site in Cambridgeshire where Mr McKeague's body is expected to be found.

Nicola Urquhart, 48, the mother of Corrie McKeague who went missing six months ago in Suffolk, has been vocal about errors in the handling of the case

Serving police officer Ms Urquhart (left, in the search) said she was grateful the hunt for her son Corrie McKeague (right) was underway but insisted it should have started much earlier

The body of Mr McKeague, who vanished last September in Bury St Edmunds, is believed to have ended up inside a bin lorry before being dumped at a tip.

Writing on the Find Corrie Facebook page, Ms Urquhart said: 'Sadly there is quite a lot of confusion with what we were told and what we are being told now.

'There is... a huge issue with the police claiming on live TV that they secured the landfill from the start and ensured no more rubbish was put on top.

'This is not true. They handed back the landfill and were done.'

Ms Urquhart said this was 'regardless of my efforts in having the military talking to the assistant chief constable on my behalf begging them not to do this'.

Shortly after the gunner was reported missing, officers seized a rubbish truck which collected a wheelie bin from the area in which Mr McKeague was last seen.

Writing on the Find Corrie Facebook page, Ms Urquhart said there is 'quite a lot of confusion with what we were told and what we are being told now'

There were no traces of him and wrong measurements of the bin's weight were given, putting it at 24lbs rather than a far heavier weight later confirmed by police.

Ms Urquhart wrote: 'Basically we were initially told the police were given the wrong bin lorry to start with but then got the correct one.

Mr McKeague, seen with his girlfriend April Oliver, has been missing since September

'We have now been told that's not true. Then we were told it was recyclable rubbish. Cardboard and paper. Now we have been told it's household rubbish.

'We were told it went through a specific process that would simply never allow a body through. Now we are told because it's a Saturday there are no staff on and no process what so ever.

'We were told the bin weighed 11kg and now we're told it's 116kg.'

She concluded: 'So yes it's fair to say that although my gratitude is immeasurable at the search now taking place, this could have and should have happened so, so much earlier.'

Mr McKeague's uncle, Tony Wringe, also hit out at Suffolk Constabulary, writing: 'We begged the police to search the tip. They said no and never.

'Nicola pleaded with them to at least secure the area. Again, no, they wanted to hand it back to the operator and that they did not feel there was any future value in holding the site.

'Through luck or judgement the waste site operator did not dump much/any more waste on that area of the tip - this was nothing to do with the police.

Mr McKeague was last seen on CCTV walking by himself into a dead end area in Bury St Edmunds known as the Horseshoe

Mr McKeague has been missing since September 23 last year following a night out with friends in Bury St Edmunds

'Every minute they take to do this, there is a mother staring at her phone hoping for it to ring and praying that it won't.

'This should have happened five months ago - permitting a full stop on the search activity because an excavator isn't working seems perverse when there are so many instant options available to replace it.

'If this was the chief inspector's son, do we think the search would have stopped for this?'

Mr McKeague has been missing since September 23 last year following a night out with friends in Bury St Edmunds.

He was last seen on CCTV walking by himself into a dead end area known as the Horseshoe.

Final traces of his mobile phone appeared to link it to the movements of a bin lorry making its way to the landfill site in Milton, Cambridgeshire.

Ms Urquhart (centre) joins search and rescue volunteers near his base at RAF Honnington

Suffolk Police Acting Chief Superintendent Kim Warner (left) speaks next to Ms Urquhart and his brothers Darroch McKeague and Makeyan McKeague at a press conference last October

Police decided not to search the landfill at the time and chose to investigate other leads.

But earlier this month a mass excavation of the site begun after data revealed that bin lorry measurements at the time were recorded incorrectly.

The six-month search for Corrie September 23, 2016 : Mr McKeague leaves his air base and heads into Bury St Edmunds for a night out with friends. September 24, 2016: At 3:08am he sent a message to a friend and, around 15 minutes later, was seen entering a loading bay area behind a Greggs bakery. He was not seen leaving the area. September 26, 2016: He fails to turn up to parade and RAF Honington. September 27, 2016: Police appeal through the media to anyone who knows where he is. They release CCTV images of him in Bury St Edmunds. October 4, 2016: It emerges that Mr McKeague's mobile phone had been tracked moving 12 miles north west to Barton Mills, the site of the rubbish tip. November 15, 2016: Police close part of the A14 while officers carry out a roadside search. December 8, 2016: A crowdfunding campaign is launched to pay for private investigators. It raises £20,000 in two days. December 17, 2016: A search organised by Mrs Urquhart takes place at an area of forest near RAF Honington. January 9, 2016: Corrie's girlfriend, April Oliver, reveals she is pregnant with his baby. She didn't know at the time he went missing but found out weeks later. January 18, 2017: The airman's mother revealed that he had joined an online swingers' club before he went missing. January 22, 2017: Mr McKeague's mother leads search near the A11 in Mildenhall and admits: 'This is hard because I know I am looking for a body.' February 10, 2017: Police start work at the landfill site where mobile phone records suggest Mr McKeague may have been taken. March 1, 2017: Police arrest 26-year-old traffic dispatcher for waste management firm Biffa on suspicion of attempting to pervert to course of justice in relation to Corrie's disappearance. He is later told he faces no further action. March 7, 2017: Police reveal the weight of a bin lorry linked to the investigation was mistaken recorded as more than 180lb lighter than it actually was. Advertisement

It is possible that Mr McKeague may have crawled into the bin to sleep after a drunken night out and was dumped into the lorry's crusher.

In response to Ms Urquhart's allegations, a Suffolk Constabulary spokesman said in a lengthy explanation: 'Police have been carrying out extensive enquiries to locate Corrie McKeague since he was reported as missing on Monday, September 26.

'Throughout the enquiry officers have been investigating the most likely scenario with the information they had at the time, while also carrying out work on other possibilities, with detectives checking and re-checking as is routine in investigations of this nature.

'Initial witness accounts indicated that Corrie may have tried to walk back to Honington.

'There was also speculation that something else may have happened to him – that he may have been taken against his will, or had willingly gone with someone else for example - and officers could not afford to rule out any of these options.

'The landfill site search was always one possible line of enquiry police were looking at, after it was thought Corrie's phone may have been in the bin lorry, however it was only one of the possibilities.

'It was thought extremely unlikely that he went with his phone due to the information officers had at that time about the weight of the pick-up.

'Officers were told that the waste pick up from the area was just 11kg, and it was only through a comprehensive and persistent checking process by police that the information that had been provided was recently found to be incorrect.

'The correct bin lorry was seized at the start of the investigation and work was done to see if there was any trace of Corrie within the vehicle or if the vehicle had been involved in a collision.'

She added: 'When an initial decision not to search the landfill was made we remained in contact with the site who had identified where the waste had been deposited.

'They placed nothing further on top of this. Had anything further been deposited we would have encompassed this in the current search.

'Painstaking work was carried out alongside searches, comprehensive CCTV examination and background enquiries to see what may have happened.

'The combination of the lack of CCTV sightings and witness information gradually ruled out many of the other possibilities but it was only by carrying out these enquiries – and the work to check the data provided - that this was found to be the most likely option.

'We remain committed to finding out the truth about what happened to Corrie, and work to search the landfill site at Milton in Cambridgeshire continues.'