Daily Mail "Reporters" on trial.

Two journalists who wrote the City Slickers financial column in the Daily Mirror aimed to "manipulate" the stock market, a court has heard today. James Hipwell and Anil Bhoyrul bought stocks, tipped them in their column and then sold at a profit as the price rose, the prosecution counsel claimed. James Hipwell has denied charges of breaching the Financial Services Act; Anil Bhoyrul is not on trial although his role in the alleged manipulation was disclosed in court. Another defendant, Terry Shepherd, denies a charge of breaching the Act.

The alleged manipulation took place between 1 August 1999 and 29 February 2000 and involved 44 separate incidents and between them they made over £70,000 profit.

Deliberate lies

The London court heard how the journalists deliberately lied in their columns to encourage readers to buy the shares they tipped, thus causing the share price on the London Stock Market to rise accordingly. Mr Katz, the prosecuting barrister said there was evidence that Hipwell and Bhoyrul, both aged 39, had displayed "cynical disregard for accuracy and truth" in some of the stories they had written. Some stories behind the tips, which were designed to inflate the share price, were "untrue, inaccurate or otherwise factually misleading", he said.

One story which suggested a biotech company; Oxford GlycoScience had made a breakthrough on developing an AIDS vaccine was a lie.

On Leeds Sporting, owners of Leeds United soccer club, the pair advised their readers to "get in very quickly or you will miss out on the bonanza" after they tipped the shares to hit 49 pence. On the afternoon the tip was published, both men sold their shares in the company for between 26 and 28 pence. The buy-tip-sell pattern showed "the journalists had no faith in their predictions", Mr. Katz said.

Private investor co-opted

In November 1999, a third man, Terence Shepherd, became involved in the conspiracy to "create a misleading impression as to the value of investments", the prosecutor said. Shepherd, 36, was a day-trader - a private investor - 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 them tips of his own.

Both Hipwell and Shepherd, who deny the charges, could face heavy fines or several years in prison if found guilty. Hipwell and Bhoyrul were sacked by the Daily Mirror in early 2000 for gross misconduct, although the editor Piers Morgan faced censure from the self-regulating Press Complaints Commission for his employees’ conduct.

The trial is expected to last six to eight weeks. The accused Hipwell who now works for the PR guru Max Clifford, claimed that profiting from share-tipping was common practice in journalism!

** Nice to see the reporters of this piss poor rag getting some justice.

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