A new DNA technology hailed as having the potential to solve thousands of murders, rapes and other serious crimes could lead to innocent people being convicted, one of Britain’s most respected forensic scientists has warned.

DNAboost, a computer software program that unravels DNA samples where a surface or material has been touched by more than one person, should be subject to widespread testing among the scientific community before it is introduced for use by police across Britain, according to Professor Allan Jamieson, director of the Forensic Institute in Glasgow. His concerns about another method of DNA detection, low copy DNA, led to the collapse last year of the trial of Sean Hoey, the Omagh bomb suspect, and to the technique being suspended by police forces. He said that the future success of DNAboost could be put at risk by a “cavalier” approach to its use.

The software has already been piloted by four police forces in northern England, at least one of which has praised it publicly and claims it has provided more “hits” on possible suspects. It has been hailed for its crime-fighting potential by Tony Blair, while experts have said that it could identify up to 6,000 extra suspects each year.

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