Former Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan has been cleared of any blame in the Mirror’s ‘City Slickers’ scandal by the Department of Trade and Industry, writes Jean Morgan.
He was accused of trading in shares which had been written about by the paper’s former City Slickers columnists James Hipwell and Anil Bhoyrul.
Hipwell and Bhoyrul now face possible prosecution for allegedly breaching the Financial Services Act.
The DTI’s prosecution branch has written to Thames Magistrates Court alleging that the journalists, and Terry Shepherd, conspired to commit an offence by creating misleading impressions over the value of investments.
If the allegations are accepted by magistrates they can expect to be summonsed.
Morgan said: “I always believed that my name would eventually be cleared as indeed it has. I may be unemployed but I am not a crook.”
In an interview earlier this week a bullish Hipwell had criticised the DTI for not interviewing him but believed he would eventually be cleared.
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