Former Daily Mirror reporter James Hipwell is to appear before the Leveson Inquiry

A former Daily Mirror financial reporter who was jailed for purchasing low priced stocks and then recommending them to readers is to give evidence to the Leveson Inquiry.

 James Hipwell received a six-month prison sentence in February 2006 for pocketing nearly £41,000.

He mentioned the stocks in the Daily Mirror's City Slickers column and then quickly sold them as values soared.

Mr Hipwell claimed in July that journalists at the Daily Mirror and other newspapers hacked phones.

Publisher Trinity Mirror insists that its journalists work within the criminal law and the Press Complaints Commission code of conduct.

The inquiry into press standards, which after today will break until January 9, will also take evidence from three journalists who wrote about the disappearance of Madeleine McCann from Portugal in 2007 for the Daily Express, Nick Fagge, Padraic Flanagan and David Pilditch.

In March 2008 Express Newspapers paid £550,000 libel damages and printed front-page apologies to the missing girl's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, over a series of articles falsely alleging they were responsible for their daughter's death.

Prime Minister David Cameron set up the Leveson Inquiry in July in response to revelations that the News of the World commissioned a private detective to hack murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler's phone after she disappeared in 2002.

The first part of the inquiry, sitting at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, is looking at the culture, practices and ethics of the press in general and is due to produce a report by next September.

The second part, examining the extent of unlawful activities by journalists, will not begin until detectives have completed their investigation into alleged phone hacking and corrupt payments to police, and any prosecutions have been concluded.