Five police forces that want to keep records of minor criminal convictions have won an appeal to do so.

The appeal court yesterday rejected a ruling that such convictions be removed from computer records, saying they could help in the fight against crime.

The appeal was made by the chief constables of the Humberside, Staffordshire, Northumbria, West Midlands and Greater Manchester forces.

The forces said if they had lost, they could have been forced to delete details of as many as one million people.

Lord Justice Waller, said: “If the police say rationally and reasonably that convictions, however old or minor, have a value in the work that they do, that should, in effect, be the end of the matter.”

The original ruling came about after five people complained to the information commissioner because their criminal records showed up when they applied for jobs.

One of the cases was a record of a man who had been fined £15 at a juvenile court for the theft of a 99p packet of meat in 1984, when he was under 18.

Another involved a man who applied to work on a summer activity scheme with children but who had been convicted and fined for theft more than 25 years earlier.

The five convicted people who had contested the case were refused permission to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Under current policy, the records can remain on the police national computer for up to 100 years.

Ian Readhead, Director of Information at the association of chief police officer's (ACPO), welcomed the decision.

"This data assists police officers in their work in preventing crime and protecting the public and the loss of such valuable information would have been detrimental to that," he said.

"Although principally used for police purposes, these records are also critical to the Courts, the Criminal Records Bureau, the Independent Safeguarding Agency, the Crown Prosecution Service and the Home Office, who all supported this appeal."