Police should not rule out help from ‘clairvoyants and witches’ to find a missing person, according to draft guidelines for officers.

Instead of urging detectives to dismiss tip-offs from those claiming to have psychic powers, the advice recommends they proceed with caution and look into any new leads.

The College of Policing suggests that any information received from crystal balls or cauldrons be ‘evaluated in the context of the case’.

A consultation document from the College of Policing, which is the official source of professional practice on police work has said officers should not dismiss tip offs from psychics

It advises detectives to record the unusual methods used by the individual, and whether they have had any ‘accredited success’ in solving other mysteries.

But the document adds that a psychic’s testimony should not become a ‘distraction’ if it cannot help the investigation.

The guidelines are likely to raise eyebrows among veteran detectives used to receiving bizarre tip-offs.

Critics claim psychics give worried families false hope – and that there is little evidence, if any, that they have ever helped solve a case.

Police forces across the country have been asked to comment on the guidelines by next month. The College of Policing – which is responsible for police procedures – writes: ‘High-profile missing person investigations nearly always attract the interest of psychics and others, such as witches and clairvoyants. Any information received from psychics should be evaluated in the context of the case, and should never become a distraction ... unless it can be verified.

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‘The motive of the individual should always be ascertained, especially where financial gain is included. The person’s methods should be asked for, including the circumstances in which they received the information.’

Many high-profile missing persons cases have attracted offers of help from psychics. Often these have been thoroughly investigated – despite the fact police forces have faced funding cuts in recent years.

Officers received dozens of tip-offs from psychics after three-year-old Madeleine McCann went missing from a Portuguese holiday resort in 2007. They amassed a pile of potential leads – every single one of which was looked into in case it turned out to be correct.

Police consulted psychics in the missing persons cases of both Milly Dowler, left, and Carlos Assaf, right

In 2002, detectives consulted a ‘medium’ in Ireland during the hunt for missing 13-year-old Milly Dowler from Surrey. Her killer Levi Bellfield was convicted in 2011.

Dyfed Powys Police are also believed to have spent up to £20,000 investigating claims surrounding Carlos Assaf, who was found hanged in his flat.

Mr Assaf's 'spirit' had apparently informed mediums that he had been strangled by gangsters who forced him to drink petrol and bleach, an inquest heard.

The psychics said they had seen visions of 'a lion, a horse and the name Tony Fox' in connection with his death.

This led police to visit more than a dozen pubs named the Red Lion and the Black Horse looking for clues.

Eventually, a second post mortem was carried out on Mr Assaf's body, but no bleach or petrol was found in his digestive tract.

One ex-detective defended the guidelines, saying some who claim to be psychic may actually have information from credible sources.

John Briggs, who served in Derbyshire, told the industry journal Police Oracle: ‘How they say they have got it, if they say it’s come to them in a dream, for example, isn’t the same thing as how they have actually got it. They may have started asking around and doing their own investigation.’