A pair of financial journalists used their share-tipping column to artificially inflate the value of their own investments, pocketing tens of thousands of pounds, a court heard today.

James Hipwell and Anil Bhoyrul, who wrote the Daily Mirror’s City Slickers section, displayed a 'cynical disregard' for their readers and the law by fabricating stories to enhance the value of their holdings, it was claimed.

Using a "buy, tip and sale" approach, they would first spend thousands of pounds on shares, highlight the stock as "tip of the day" 24 hours later, and sell it at a profit as soon as the price rose, London’s Southwark Crown Court was told.

"It was ... an obvious conflict of interest," said Philip Katz, prosecuting. "We say any tip which deliberately failed to disclose to readers this conflict of interest created a hugely misleading impression.

"The intentional failure by them to disclose what they were really doing is, as far as the two journalists are concerned, the most serious aspect of the case."

Mr Katz said that some of the stories behind the tips "were in fact untrue, inaccurate or otherwise factually misleading", including a story about the alleged development of an Aids vaccine.

Oxford Glyco Sciences was featured as the column’s tip of the day. In fact "there was no truth whatsoever" in the journalists' claim that the company had made a vaccine breakthrough.

The prosecutor said that Terry Shepherd, a private investor who was active on an investors' internet bulletin, was recruited to the scam. His motive, said Mr Katz, was to "bet on some winners" and "make a quick profit".

He allegedly benefited to the tune of £17,000, while Hipwell and Bhoyrul pocketed £41,000 and £15,000 respectively.

Hipwell, 39, of Holloway, north London, and Shepherd, 36, of Leatherhead, Surrey, each deny conspiring with Bhoyrul to "create a misleading impression as to the value of investments between August 1 1999 and February 29 2000".

Bhoyrul, 38, of Wood Road, Sutton, Surrey, is not on trial.

Opening the trial, Mr Katz told the six-man, six-woman jury that the prosecution case relied on 44 separate occasions when shares in various companies were tipped and traded.

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