A former assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police has told the Leveson Inquiry she refused to meet members of the media outside of Scotland Yard.

Lynne Owens, now chief constable of Surrey Police, said journalists found it strange that she would not meet them for lunch or in a social setting during her time at the Met.

She would not drink with journalists as there would be an expectation she would say something indiscreet, and said she found it “abhorrent” that officers could leak inappropriate information to the press.

She added: “The fact that people would be prepared to release that data is frankly beyond me and I don’t believe people like that should be in the police service.”

Robert Jay QC, inquiry counsel, asked the chief constable about her written statement, in which she claimed details of an investigation into a crime squad had been leaked to the media. It was not clear whether the information had come from the officers in question, someone else in the Met, or the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

Owens said she had off-the-record conversations with journalists around the royal wedding, on the understanding information could be published after a certain time when it was no longer sensitive.

She said: “There's a balance at needs to be struck because it is clearly very important that the media have access to accurate, timely information because that does inform the public, and is therefore the heart of public confidence.”

She added: “It’s difficult to get balanced and measured responses from the media. The sensational and the exciting are the stories that tend to hit the headlines."