A jury trying former oil company boss John O'Brien over an alleged £7.2 million sterling (#11.5 million) stock market fraud was discharged yesterday after failing to agree a verdict on a number of the charges against him.

O'Brien (45) was convicted on Monday of two charges of forgery and cleared of a similar charge. He was also found guilty of the two offences under the Financial Services Act, relating to the issue.

He had denied five charges of forgery, two of false accounting, and the two offences under the Financial Services Act.

The British Serious Fraud Office must now decide whether to seek a retrial on the outstanding charges or proceed to sentence on the guilty verdicts on February 11th.

The jury of six men and five women were thanked by Judge Peter Fingret for the attention they had paid to the four-month hearing.

O'Brien of Midleton, Co Cork, was accused of staging a successful share issue by London-based Alliance Resources, knowing the company's rights to exploit a US oilfield had been lost and that a flagship well had failed to produce significant quantities of natural gas.

He was alleged to have stooped to an illicit game of make-believe to deceive investors in the April 1995 rights issue - claiming the well was in production and his company still held title to exploit 1,825 acres of land in Louisiana.