Between 2012 and 2014, 15 police officers were punished for leaking information to criminals but only 10 of them were sacked, RTL reports on Thursday.

The broadcaster bases its claims on police figures, which show five officers did not lose their jobs because of ‘mitigating circumstances’.

The information passed on to criminals included tip-offs about raids on a marijuana plantations. In another case, an officer was engaged to a drugs gang member and one was named in an investigation into a gangland killing.

There are three ongoing investigations into information leaks this year which are not included in the figures.

Criminologist Hans Nelen told RTL that warning criminals is a ‘cardinal sin’. ‘If you tip off people involved in soft drugs, you are not only damaging that particular criminal investigation but the entire police organisation. You are damaging trust in all your colleagues.’

In total, some 60,000 people work for the police. In the three years in question, 262 were sacked and 23 resigned after investigations, RTL said. A further 212 were given conditional discharges and face immediate dismissal if their behaviour is questioned again.

RTL’s website includes a list of the some of the reasons. They include inappropriate behaviour towards women in an asylum centre, theft, corruption, issuing on the spot fines to foreign drivers and then pocketing the cash, rape, prostitution and drugs offences.

One officer who was given a conditional discharge stopped to pick up a hamburger on his way to an emergency call.