A DAMNING report into the Operation Lancet inquiry has cleared former detective superintendent Ray Mallon and has branded the police probe a massive waste of public money.

About four years after the Lancet saga first hit the headlines, an independent review has been leaked and is sure to further fuel the war of words between those at the centre of the controversy.

Already, it has been criticised by bosses at Cleveland Police and Cleveland Police Authority, who are expected to come under severe pressure as to why the review was kept under wraps for the past two years.

In a damning criticism of Lancet, the review team led by Chief Superintendent Andrew Brown, of West Yorkshire Police, concludes: "What should have been an intelligence-led criminal inquiry became a mammoth and costly far-reaching and arduous investigation."

Operation Lancet saw scores of police officers from four separate forces diverted from front-line policing and millions of pounds of public money spent investigating alleged corruption within Cleveland Police.

In the report, Chief Superintendent Brown says: "It can no longer be justified to deal with this investigation as a major inquiry into widespread corruption within Cleveland Police, as this is clearly not the case."

Mr Mallon, who resigned from the police after admitting 14 disciplinary charges earlier this month so he could stand in Middlesbrough's mayoral election, said the report proved Lancet had failed.

He said: "Numerous aspects of this document concern me, but none more than the offer of immunity to witnesses who had committed serious criminal offences. No wonder witnesses were queuing up."

The Cleveland Police Authority has countered the report and still lays the blame at Mr Mallon's doorstep.

Councillor Ken Walker, chairman of Cleveland Police Authority, has accused Mr Mallon of leaking the report to create a smokescreen.

He said: "More and more, one sees Mr Mallon is exposed as a poor loser who is now seeking to use every trick in the book to divert attention from the fact that his reputation has been tarnished by his own actions."