Thames Valley Police has denied failing to hand over vital files to prosecutors when dealing with racist criminals.

They have dismissed prosecutors' claims that they failed to pass on crucial details to lawyers when tackling racially-motivated offences.

The Crown Prosecution Service, which monitored race crimes across the country over a 12-month period, said racist incident reports were not passed on in 95 per cent of cases investigated by Thames Valley officers.

As a result, it claims, key evidence may have been overlooked in 90 of the 95 racist incidents taken to court in 2002-2003.

Race charges were dropped in 22 cases because of insufficient evidence.

The CPS said the conviction rate for race crimes in Thames Valley was 75 per cent, compared with the national average of 84 per cent.

Its figures showed that in the Thames Valley, race crime court cases rose by 30 per cent last year.

But Dee Singh, the force's community and race relations officer, said filing racist incident reports was not vital in most cases. She said: "Thames Valley Police ensures that all racist incident files are clearly marked as such before they are submitted to the CPS.

"In most cases where the charges are not contested, the file is fast-tracked to enable a rapid conclusion. In such cases, the inclusion of a rapid incident report is not necessary."