Drones are being used by drug gangs to spy on rivals and stalkers use them to look at victims, as police reveal they get called more than a dozen times a day about their criminal use

Police forces are dealing with a serious and growing number of cases of spy drones being used by criminal gangs and stalkers.

Officers are being called out around 16 times a day because of the devices, with forces receiving 18,290 complaints about drone misuse in the last three years.

The criminal use of drones rose ten per cent in the first ten months of this year against the same period last year, the Civil Aviation Authority said.

Last night, senior police figures called for a new registration system for drones, warning they were increasingly used by drugs gangs to spy on each other, as well as by stalkers, and by criminals to survey farms before raiding them for machinery and animals.

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Chief Constable Lucy D’Orsi, National Police Chiefs’ Council lead on drones, said: ‘We have seen an increase in reports of use of drones by criminals.’

Police forces are dealing with a serious and growing number of cases of spy drones being used by criminal gangs and stalkers 

Katy Bourne, Police and Crime Commissioner for Sussex, said: ‘Police need to be able to track irresponsible and threatening drones back to their pilots so that they can be interviewed and, if appropriate, arrested.’

Drones are also being flown into restricted flight zones, such as those around airports, potentially putting lives at risk.

A Virgin Atlantic Boeing 787 Dreamliner carrying 264 passengers came within 50ft of crashing into a drone just five minutes after taking off from Heathrow in September.

Officers are being called out around 16 times a day because of the devices, with forces receiving 18,290 complaints about drone misuse in the last three years