Writers guilty of tips scam

LONDON - Two former Daily Mirror journalists have been found guilty of manipulating the sharemarket in a share-tipping scam that earned them thousands of pounds.

A court official said James Hipwell had been found guilty of conspiracy to breach the Financial Services Act at Southwark Crown Court.

Anil Bhoyrul, who with Hipwell wrote the Mirror's "City Slickers" financial column, had pleaded guilty to the same charge at an earlier hearing.

The pair, aged 39, bought shares, gave them a positive write-up in the newspaper and then sold out at a profit on the day or shortly after the tip was published.

"The column was used to manipulate the market in various shares," prosecutor Philip Katz said during the seven-week trial.

Hipwell was accused of making a profit of £41,000 ($102,000) through the scam between August 1999 and February 2000 and Bhoyrul £15,000 ($37,000).

Katz said there was evidence the two had displayed "cynical disregard for accuracy and truth" in some of their stories .

Some stories behind the tips, which were designed to inflate the share price, were "untrue, inaccurate or otherwise factually misleading".

The newspaper sacked the pair in early 2000 for gross misconduct.

The editor of the newspaper at the time, Piers Morgan, was investigated by the Department of Trade and Industry over the affair after he bought shares in a company the day before it was tipped in the column.

He was cleared of any wrongdoing.

Private investor Terry Shepherd, on trial with Hipwell and accused of earning 17,000 through the scheme, was also found guilty.

Shepherd, 36, was a day-trader who initially agreed to help the journalists in the misuse of the City Slickers column by talking up the pair's predictions on internet bulletin boards.

He later fed Hipwell and Bhoyrul with tips of his own.

All three face heavy fines or a prison sentence.

- REUTERS