An undercover police officer has admitted he was exposed as an infiltrator by his own blunder, which has been described by activists as worthy of Inspector Clouseau, the spycops public inquiry has heard.<\/p>\n
The officer, who used the fake name Simon Wellings, jeopardised his own covert deployment by mistakenly recording himself discussing individual campaigners with other special branch officers.<\/p>\n
He committed the error while infiltrating leftwing groups as a member of a covert Scotland Yard unit.<\/p>\n
It happened when he attended a secret meeting with the special branch officers and was asked if he had the telephone number of an activist. He looked up her number on his phone, but then mistakenly dialled it.<\/p>\n
His call was diverted to the activist\u2019s voicemail, which recorded him being asked by the other officers to identify campaigners from photographs he was being shown. He did not realise their conversation was being recorded.<\/p>\n
Internal police documents show that, after he was exposed, the police considered whether to leave the anti-capitalist group he had infiltrated \u201cintact\u201d or whether to \u201cmount a destructive operation\u201d.<\/p>\n
Wellings was questioned last week by the inquiry that is examining how about 139 undercover officers spied on tens of thousands of predominantly leftwing activists<\/a> over the course of more than four decades.<\/p>\n The undercover officers assumed fake identities as they hoovered up information about the political and personal lives of the activists.<\/p>\n Wellings said he submitted up to 4,000 surveillance reports on campaigners while he infiltrated Globalise Resistance, the anti-capitalist group, and other leftwing campaigns between 2001 and 2007. These included details of campaigners\u2019 bank accounts, housing, personal relationships and finances.<\/p>\n Wellings made the accidental recording<\/a> in 2004 while meeting with officers in special branch, the secretive police division that monitored political groups.<\/p>\n Activists from Globalise Resistance recognised his voice from the recording. They suspected Wellings was an informant and confronted him at a meeting at the Royal Festival Hall, London. Wellings was expelled from the group.<\/p>\n