A SHAMED academic has been fired after it emerged that he plagiarised part of his doctoral degree at the University of York.

Professor Tony Antoniou stepped down as dean of Durham University's business school last September following allegations that he plagiarised work for a research article and for part of his doctoral degree at the University of York.

He had his doctorate removed by York following a hearing in November last year and he has now been sacked him for "misconduct."

A University of York spokesman said Mr Antoniou's Doctor of Philosophy (D.Phil) qualification, which was awarded in 1987, had been withdrawn after Durham University brought the allegations to their attention.

The spokesman said: "There was a hearing by the University Senate to consider the allegations that he had plagiarised material from somebody else's research for his thesis. The allegations were upheld and the University Senate withdrew his D.Phil."

Antoniou's York University D.Phil thesis, Futures Markets: Theory And Tests, took material from at least three other sources.

The introduction to his thesis begins identically to that of a paper by an American academic.

A spokeswoman for Durham University said: "A disciplinary tribunal met on February 8 to consider two charges of misconduct against Tony Antoniou.

"Those charges comprised an allegation of plagiarism relating to a research article, which had been investigated through Durham's internal procedures, and issues relating to the withdrawal, following its own investigation of plagiarism, by the University of York D.Phil qualification awarded to Antoniou in 1987.

"The Tribunal upheld the charges, concluded that the misconduct concerned amounted to "good cause" for dismissal under Statute 39 and recommended dismissal.

"The vice-chancellor has acted in accordance with this recommendation and Tony Antoniou is no longer employed by the university."

Prof Antoniou joined Durham in 1998 as professor of finance and was chairman of the department of economics and finance.

He became dean of the business school in January 2002 when the department of economics and the business school were merged.

He stepped down as dean six months ago.

Prof Antoniou specialised in risk management, market anomalies and emerging markets and has supervised more than 450 Durham PhD students.

A panel of three senior professors independent of the Business School carried out the Durham investigation, which related to a paper the professor wrote in 1988 for the Journal of Business and Society, when he was working at Brunel University.

Much of it was lifted directly from a paper which was written in 1983 by an American student and two Israeli academics.