Prison move for George Michael

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Jailed pop star George Michael has been transferred to a softer Category C prison.

The former Wham! star was moved out of Pentonville Prison yesterday after abandoning plans to apply for bail.

The 47-year-old singer, whose real name is Georgios Panayiotou, was jailed on Tuesday for eight weeks after crashing his Range Rover while high on cannabis.

After being sentenced, Michael was taken to Pentonville, where former inmates have included Oscar Wilde and fellow 1980s singer Boy George.

But he was moved to Highpoint Prison in Suffolk yesterday.

The centre houses close to 1,000 male convicts. Moors murderer Myra Hindley served the last three years of her life sentence at the prison.

A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Justice said the department did not discuss the movement of prisoners.

Michael was found slumped at the wheel of a car after it smashed into a branch of photo store Snappy Snaps in north London in July.

The singer, who had a previous conviction for the same offence, was told by District Judge John Perkins there was no option but jail.

The former Wham! star admitted driving while unfit through drugs and possessing two cannabis cigarettes when he appeared at London's Highbury Corner Magistrates' Court last month.

Yesterday, a bail application on his behalf was cancelled.

Lawyers acting on behalf of the singer were due to apply for bail before a judge at Blackfriars Crown Court.

But a court spokeswoman said: "The bail application has been abandoned."

Mukul Chawla QC, who represented Michael on Tuesday, said he did not wish to talk to the Press.