Covert surveillance operations have been launched by Bromley Council to catch people for fly-tipping, rogue trading and fraud, News Shopper has learned.

In the last 12 months the council has used the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act to carry out 68 surveillance operations on residents in the borough.

According to the Home Office, the act legislates for using methods of surveillance and information gathering to help the prevention of crime, including terrorism.

From information obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, we found the council has used it to monitor people for fly-tipping 15 times, for rogue trading four times and for defrauding the council tax or housing benefits system once.

Eight people have also had their telephone records accessed in the last year.

The majority of the other operations were used to combat anti-social behaviour.

A spokesman for the Bromley Neighbourhood Watch Association, which works across the borough to reduce crime and protect the environment, commended the council surveillance but admitted it was "an intrusive scheme".

He said: "Surveillance is and has been the basis of all neighbourhood watches in the UK.

"It is true that with CCTV we are overseen too much, but with crime increasing day by day it is an intrusive scheme which one has to live with."

A spokesman for Liberty, an independent human rights organisation, dubbed the surveillance legislation "a snoopers' charter" and called for reform.

He said: "You can care about serious crime and terrorism without throwing away our personal privacy with a snoopers' charter.

"The law must be reformed to require sign-off by judges not self authorisation by over-zealous bureaucrats."

A council spokesman said: "We have only used this legislation when it has been absolutely necessary.

"Residents rightly expect us to take action when we believe that fraud for instance, is taking place.

"Inevitably, it is often difficult to investigate without bringing together personal information.

"But, the legislation is quite clear and we need to be clear why we can access this data.

"Residents should be reassured that we are using the information in accordance with the guidelines and that clearly, this is subject to public scrutiny."