'City Slickers' inquiry drags into fourth year

One of the journalists at the centre of the Daily Mirror share-dealing scandal has still not been interviewed by Department of Trade and Industry investigators, three years after the inquiry began.

James Hipwell, one of the paper's disgraced "City Slickers" share tipsters during the internet investment mania, plans to write to the DTI to demand information on whether he is still under investigation on suspicion of insider-dealing offences.

News of the sluggish pace of the DTI investigation comes amid concern over suspected insider dealing during the recent burst of mergers and acquisitions activity.

Mr Hipwell said: "The last communication I had from the DTI was in June last year after my lawyer wrote to them. They said that they would want to interview me at some stage in the future – but they still haven't. What I am hoping is that, because of the huge sums of taxpayers' money they have spent, they don't want to say it is dead in the water, but that they will let my lawyer know privately that I am no longer under investigation."

The DTI appointed inspectors to examine the share dealings of Mr Hipwell and his fellow "Slicker", Anil Bhoyrul, in May 2000.

The pair were sacked from the Daily Mirror for "gross misconduct" in February 2000. The Press Complaints Commission found that they had personally profited by buying shares before tipping them in their pages. That sent the price rocketing, and allowed them to sell the shares at a profit. The PCC said Mr Hipwell had done this on 25 occasions and Mr Bhoyrul on 16.

Mr Hipwell spent two years working for the publicist Max Clifford, but is now planning a return to journalism. Mr Bhoyrul is media commentator for the Sunday Express and also appears on LBC radio. Piers Morgan, whose own share dealings in two companies subsequently tipped by the City Slickers were also censured by the PCC, is still editor of the Mirror.

The DTI investigation – described by Mr Hipwell as "Kafka-esque" – has examined all the City Slickers' mobile phone and e-mail records from the period, as well as interviewing a number of their contacts.

It spawned a side investigation that led to the conviction of Tim Blackstone, a public relations adviser, for insider dealing, but no legal action has been taken as a result of the main investigation.

The Financial Services Authority has since taken over responsibility for policing insider trading rules from the DTI in order to speed up cases and improve the chances of success. Although it is yet to exercise its powers, there were suggestions at the weekend that it is readying disciplinary notices against a number of financial companies.

The new wave of merger and acquisition activity will be seen as a major challenge for the City regulator, since a number of big takeover announcements in the past 10 days have been preceded by surges in trading activity that suggest an insider dealing ring may be at work.