Jail-bound Snipes loses new trial bid

A Florida judge has denied actor Wesley Snipes’ request for a new trial hours before the film star is scheduled to start a three-year prison sentence for failing to pay taxes.

US District Judge William Terrell Hodges rejected an emergency motion that Snipes had filed a day earlier.

The judge says the emergency motion merely restated arguments that have already been decided.

Snipes has been ordered to report to a federal prison in Lewis Run, Pennsylvania, today.

The 48-year-old star of the “Blade” trilogy was convicted in 2008 on three misdemeanour counts of wilful failure to file income tax returns.