Judge upholds 6-month "City Slicker" jail sentence

LONDON, Mar 11 (Reuters) A former financial journalist who was jailed for using his newspaper column in a share-tipping scam lost his appeal yesterday against his six-month sentence.

James Hipwell, who co-wrote a column called ''City Slickers'' in the Daily Mirror with fellow journalist Anil Bhoyrul, would buy shares, tempt investors to do likewise by tipping them in the paper and then sell out once the price had risen.

He made 41,000 pounds from the scam.

Hipwell, found guilty last December of conspiracy to breach the Financial Services Act, was expected to be eligible for release on a tag sometime in March.

Bhoyrul 39, who had admitted conspiracy before going to trial and who made a profit of 15,000 pounds through the scam between August 1999 and February 2000, was sentenced to 180 hours' community service.

Lawyers for Hipwell had argued the disparity of the two men's sentences was hard to justify. They also said Hipwell suffers from a severe kidney problem.

But Appeal Court judge Lord Justice Waller told Hipwell he had no right to feel aggrieved that he had been handed a jail term while Bhoyrul had not.

He added the sentence imposed by Southwark Crown Court was ''not open to challenge.'' A third man, private investor Terry Shepherd, 36, who stood trial with Hipwell and was accused of earning 17,000 pounds through the scheme, was also found guilty last year.

Shepherd was a day-trader who initially agreed to help the journalists by talking up the pair's predictions on Internet bulletin boards. He was sentenced to three months in jail.

The Mirror sacked Hipwell and Bhoyrul in early 2000 for gross misconduct and the scandal also led to Piers Morgan, the paper's then editor, being investigated by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

Morgan had bought shares in a company the day before it was tipped in the column but he was later cleared by the DTI of any wrongdoing.

REUTERS DKS KP0923