Ray Mallon claims smear tactics are being used against him - even though he has been officially cleared of any criminal wrong-doing.

Yesterday - the day of his first Press conference after being cleared by the Crown Prosecution Service - a national newspaper revealed a "leaked" Treasury report critical of his methods when he was head of Middlesbrough CID.

The two lawyers who drew up the document claim the detective superintendent's Zero Tolerance tactics brought few if any rewards in the number of crimes detected, the amount of stolen property recovered or the number of suspects prosecuted. The article quoted the report as stating: "Superior officers must carry responsibility for the indiscipline which disgraced Middlesbrough CID."

Det Supt Mallon said: "I blame the Police Complaints Authority for this leak and demand an investigation takes place to identify the person or persons responsible. This leak has been timed by somebody in authority to torpedo this Press conference. As far as this report is concerned I dismiss it out of hand. This is another example of people in high places attempting to do their best to smear me."

Det Supt Mallon said that when he arrived at his post in Middlesbrough, he walked into a mess. "If it had been a business it would have been bankrupt years earlier," he said.

He claimed to have witnessed instances of indiscipline which supervisory officers failed to confront, and said he found no infrastructure in place, no focus, no strategy, and no system for the running of informants.