Lord Black of Crossharbour, the disgraced newspaper tycoon, must go straight to jail on Monday, a Chicago court has ruled.

Black cannot delay his six-and-a-half year sentence while his appeal against his conviction for fraud is heard, said the federal appeals court.

Prisoner No 18330-424, who has been on $21 million (£10.6 million) bail at his waterfront estate in Palm Beach, Florida, must report to the low-security Federal Correctional Institute at Coleman, Florida, in three days' time.

Black, 63, and three other employees of Hollinger, his former publishing empire which owned The Daily Telegraph, were found guilty in June of stealing $6.1 million.

Earlier this month an attempt to have his prison term delayed to June 15 pending his appeal also failed. A Chicago judge ruled that he had failed to demonstrate that a "substantial question of law or fact" was likely to result in the appeal succeeding.

Born in Montreal, Black gave up his Canadian citizenship in 2001 in exchange for a life peerage in the House of Lords.

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