POLICE were called in after council whistleblowers shopped their colleagues on more than 60 occasions in the last year.

According to a Freedom of Information request, 63 cases of whistleblowing of Glasgow City Council officers and staff were investigated in 2013, up on 59 in 2012 and 33 in 2011.

Of the allegations in 2013, nine were upheld. All involved council staff, not officers.Three people resigned, two were sacked and three were given a written warning.

The other person was given a reminder about council procedures. Three also resulted in a police investigation.

Of the total number of calls received, four were allegations of abuse of power, 13 were theft allegations, around a third concerned service complaints, 10 were allegations of misuse of council equipment, such as cars and computers, 13 were logged as working-time abuse, seven were about houses of multiple occupation, and four were planning or licensing matters.

A council spokesman said the 2013 figures had been slightly inflated by calls wrongly directed to the whistleblowing service from members of the public complaining about council services, not necessarily allegations about staff.

He said more than one call could also be made about a particular case.