A “rough” haircut was among a number of hate crimes reported to police forces across the country who were accused of wasting time by logging them.

The customer reportedly contacted officers after claiming his barber was “aggressive” following a discussion about the Russia-Ukraine war.

The “victim” claimed that he was targeted because he is Lithuanian and can speak Russian.

Other “ridiculous” claims included a German woman being offended at being compared with a Rottweiler, as well as a neighbour deeming it homophobic to be referred to as “Leonard” in a hedge dispute.

Some 13,000 non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs) were recorded in the year to June.

A City of London Police log of the haircut incident reportedly said: “The barber asked him about the present situation in Ukraine, the victim stated that all conversations with the barber were fine, but he stated that the barber was aggressive and rough whilst he was cutting his hair.

“The victim believes this was because he spoke Russian and is a hate incident.”

Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said: “The police should not waste any valuable time on incidents like this. There is plenty of real crime they should be preventing and solving.

“An aggressively administered haircut is not a police matter.”

He told The Sun: “The police should only spend time investigating or recording actual criminal allegations or incidents where there is a real and imminent risk of criminality subsequently occurring.

“The Government needs to urgently update the guidance to ensure this is the case. This nonsense undermines confidence in policing.”

Ex-Met detective Peter Bleksley added: “This is ridiculous and shows how disconnected police are from what the public want.

“No wonder there is a crimewave in this country. The guidelines suggest you should only intervene in cases like this where there is fear of escalation – whoever had a fear of escalation after a bad haircut?”