Lap-dancing and stock tips

THE probe into Slickergate, the insider dealing scandal at the Mirror newspaper, has reportedly been widened to include stock market traders, Stringfellows lap-dancing club and a former porn star.

Trade and Industry investigators are looking at an alleged ring of up to 10 members who may have used the newspaper's City Slickers column to tip shares in which they had invested, the Sunday Times reported.

The newspaper said the ring may have frequented Stringfellows, although there is no suggestion the club nor owner Peter Stringfellow were at fault. 'The Slickers were sometimes at my table,' the newspaper quoted Stringfellow as saying. 'They were taking tips from other people and giving tips. They sometimes gave me tips. But there was nothing underhand.'

The probe had entered a second stage, the newspaper said, with DTI prosecutors pushing for a full-scale criminal investigation.

The Mirror sacked the Slickers, Anil Bhoyrul and James Hipwell, after the scandal broke in February 2000. The DTI initial inquiry focused on the conduct of the Mirror's editor, Piers Morgan, who bought stock in tech company Viglen before it was tipped in the Slickers column.

The Mirror's publisher, Trinity Mirror, cleared Morgan following an internal inquiry although DTI investigators have not ruled out criminal charges against him, the Sunday Times said.

The report said investigators had interviewed Tim Blackstone, brother of Baroness Blackstone, the government minister for the arts. Now a City PR man, Blackstone has played parts in films including Emmanuelle in Soho. He was one of the Slickers' contacts, although there is no suggestion of wrongdoing on his part.