Police Scotland has been accused of squandering taxpayers' money after the force spent thousands of pounds on unsuccessfully trying to block information being released to the public.

A total of £77,493 was spent by the national police force on legal costs in three separate attempts to stop information entering the public domain.

The figure was obtained through a freedom of information request by the Scottish Conservatives.

The vast majority of the bill was spent on attempting to stop a Sunday Herald journalist from learning how many informants the force had recruited.

After the information commissioner ruled against them, Police Scotland went to the Court of Session to appeal the verdict.

The force lost again and was required to pay the commissioner's legal costs of £63,087.

A further £14,406 was spent by Police Scotland resisting the commissioner's rulings on two separate items.

Scottish Conservative shadow justice secretary Liam Kerr said: "These revelations are particularly embarrassing for an organisation which is supposed to be leading the way in transparency and accountability.

"People will think that Police Scotland should respect the rulings of Scotland's information commissioner not spend tens of thousands fighting them in court.

"This is all money which could have been invested in the front-line and supporting hard-working officers. Instead, it's been squandered on legal fees."

Deputy chief constable Johnny Gwynne said: "Police Scotland is committed to being as transparent and accountable as possible. Every year the service receives around 3000 requests for information under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, more than any other public body in Scotland.

"In the overwhelming majority of cases, information is provided. However, FOI(S)A is not an absolute right to allow access to information, and the service must consider the impact of releasing information on both individuals and the wider community."