A police force is facing claims that it used anti-terror laws to access the phone records of three regional daily journalists in a bid to hunt down a whistleblower.

The Police Federation has referred Cleveland Police to the police watchdog over claims it made an application under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act to access the phone records of three Northern Echo reporters as well as those of a solicitor and the local federation chairman.

The alleged application was made as part of a bid to track down the source of a front-page story the Echo ran in 2012, when it revealed that an internal report at Cleveland Police had uncovered “elements of institutional racism.”

Northern Echo editor Peter Barron, left, has described the allegations as a “a matter of serious concern.”

The allegations are set out in a letter of complaint by the Police Federation – which represents rank and file police officers – to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).

A Cleveland Police spokeswoman told the Echo: “We can neither confirm or deny whether this happened.”

The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) is designed for use in intercepting data in relation to serious crime or terrorism.

Cleveland Police Federation chairman Steve Matthews has described the Force’s alleged use of it to track down a whistleblower as an abuse of the law.

The Echo reports that the application, made by a police officer at Cleveland in 2012, reads: “This application is submitted further to a previous application which requested data from the below listed mobile phones between 1st January 2012 and 31st May 2012.”

The documents goes on to state the inquiry “relates to contact which has been made by journalists from The Northern Echo” and lists contact between two police officers and a reporter on April 17, 2012, and the duration of the calls.

Mr Matthews said: “If it is true that Cleveland Police have used anti-terror legislation to snoop on the Police Federation then this is a disgraceful breach of the law. It is a real abuse of RIPA, which was never intended for uses such as this.

“The targeting of RIPA against police federation representatives, instructed solicitors and journalists breaches fundamental human rights.”

Added Peter: “These allegations are a matter of serious concern – that a police force should apparently go to these lengths to identify the source of a story which was clearly in the public interest.

“This is surely not what the legislation was intended to do and the fact that Cleveland Police will neither confirm nor deny the allegations adds to our concerns.”

The IPCC confirmed to the paper that it had received the letter of complaint from the National Police Federation on behalf of the Cleveland Police Federation chair.