A MAN who killed his work colleague after an argument about pay yesterday had an appeal against his conviction turned down by top judges.

Ali Mahmood, 29, was jailed for life after being convicted of the murder of Mohammed Ali at Teesside Crown Court in October, 2001.

Mr Justice Evans, sitting with Lord Justice Pill and Judge Martin Stephens at London's Court of Appeal. yesterday dismissed Mahmood's appeal, ruling his conviction was in "no way unsafe".

The judge said Mahmood, an Iraqi national with permission to stay in the UK until 2006, had stabbed Mr Ali to death in the Cleveland Shopping Centre, in Middlesbrough, on the afternoon of December 29, 2000.

An argument had broken out between the two men, who both worked at a local poultry factory, after Mr Mahmood's pay had been mistakenly paid into Mr Ali's account.

When police interviewed Mahmood after the incident, he said he had been provoked by Mr Ali, who had launched a tirade of insults against his family.

Mahmood, of Southfield Road, Middlesbrough, pleaded not guilty to murder on the basis of diminished responsibility, saying he had been suffering from post traumatic stress disorder at the time of the killing.