Piers Morgan has said he did not know about alleged phone hacking at the Daily Mirror

It was "very unlikely" that former editor Piers Morgan did not know about alleged phone hacking at the Daily Mirror, the Leveson Inquiry has heard.

James Hipwell, a former financial reporter for the newspaper, told the investigation into press standards that "there wasn't very much he didn't know about".

He also said that Mr Morgan's phone had been hacked by a colleague.

In his evidence, Mr Morgan said he was unaware of any phone hacking at the Daily Mirror under his leadership and had "no reason" to believe that hacking was going on.

However Mr Hipwell, who was jailed for purchasing low-priced stocks and then recommending them to readers, told the inquiry: "Looking at his style of editorship, I would say it was very unlikely that he didn't know what was going on because, as I have said, there wasn't very much he didn't know about."

Mr Hipwell was given 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.

On the subject of phone hacking, Mr Hipwell said: "I would go as far as to say that it happened every day and that it became apparent that a great number of the Mirror's showbusiness stories would come from that source. That is my clear memory."

The witness said he heard one reporter claim they had deleted someone else's voicemail message so that a Sun journalist could not listen to it as well.

"One of the reporters showed me the technique, giving me a demonstration of how to hack into voicemails," he told the inquiry.

Mr Hipwell, who worked at the newspaper between 1998 and 2000, said: "The openness and frequency of their hacking activities gave me the impression that hacking was considered a bog-standard journalistic tool for getting information."

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