Dutch police and the justice ministry are paying banks hundreds of thousands of euros a year for security camera footage to use in criminal investigations, the Telegraaf says on Thursday.

They also pay considerable sums to telephone companies for information about tapped phone calls, the paper says.

‘We get around one thousand bills a year from banks for the cost of tracing and making available security camera footage,’ public prosecution department spokesman Frans Zonneveld said.

The public prosecution department paid €270,000 for information from banks last year, the spokesman said.

‘We often ask for footage in follow-up investigations,’ he said. ‘But footage is much more often asked for in the initial investigation and the police have to pay the bill for that.’