Wesley Snipes ordered to start jail term

Hollywood actor Wesley Snipes has been ordered to begin a three-year prison sentence for failing to file income tax returns.

Snipes had already lost his appeal of the prison sentence stemming from his 2008 conviction in Hodges' Ocala, Florida, court on three counts of "willful failure to file tax returns" for 1999 through 2001. He was found not guilty of five other counts.

The star had been seeking a new trial, arguing that jurors in the original trial were biased and that the prosecution's star witness had his own criminal problems.

But US District Judge Terrell Hodges said: "The defendant Snipes had a fair trial ... The time has come for the judgment to be enforced."

Revoking bail for the 48-year-old star of the Blade trilogy, the judge ordered him to report to prison, as directed by the US Marshals Service or Bureau of Prisons.

It was not clear when or where Snipes would begin serving his time behind bars, however. His lawyer, Daniel Meachum, has said he would appeal if a new trial was denied.

Mr Meachum was quoted as saying: "Wesley is very disappointed but staying strong and positive."

At his sentencing, prosecutors said Snipes, a resident of Windermere, Florida, had earned more than $38 million since 1999 but had filed no tax returns or paid any taxes through October 2006.

Although he is best known for his roles in action films, Snipes has also had critical success in comedies like White Men Can't Jump in 1992. He played the lead in director Spike Lee's interracial drama Jungle Fever in 1991 and also played the jazz saxophonist in Lee's Mo' Better Blues in 1990.

Eric Thompson, a supervisor in the US Marshals Service office in Orlando, Florida, said the Bureau of Prisons would notify Snipes and his lawyer of a surrender date by post.