A BICESTER businessman shot in a street attack in Central Asia has been denied compensation following a high court ruling.

Sean Daley, 56, claims he was gunned down in July 2006 on the orders the Kyrgyzstan president's son Maksim Bakiyev.

He was shot in the back while working in the country for London-based company Oxus Gold PLC.

Mr Daley was laid up in hospital for three months and has been left with a bullet permanently lodged in his liver.

He said he had paid the price for exposing a fraud involving the country's second richest gold seam.

Mr Daley sued Mr Bakiyev at the High Court insisting he "organised and arranged" the assassination attempt.

But Mr Justice Supperstone ruled yesterday that Mr Daley had failed to prove Mr Bakiyev was behind the shooting, although did accept he had some involvement with the gold seam.

The judge said there were "various strands of evidence that suggest that he [Mr Bakiyev] was more involved [in relation to the gold seam] than he is willing to accept".

But the only direct evidence to say he organised the shooting was unreliable and deserved "no weight".

The judge concluded "It cannot be inferred that Mr Bakiyev was behind Mr Daley's shooting because it cannot be shown that anyone else was."