GRASSE, France. Nov 10 (Reuters/ Internet): A French court on Tuesday upheld a sus-u . pended three-month prison sentence on former England cricketer Geoffrey Boycott for beating his ex-lover. Boycott, who refused to accept the original sentence handed down in his absence in January, was also ordered to ’ pay a 50.000 francs ($8,500) fine and a symbolic one-franc in damages to his former girlfriend Margaret Moore.

The 58-year-old Yorkshire-man. who was not in court to hear the conviction on Tuesday,

said through his lawyers he would appeal.

Boycott ignored several demands by the French police and prosecutors to appear in court before finally appearing along with a large contingent of witnesses for retrial at Grasse, near the riviera capital of Nice, last month.

Under French law. anyone sentenced in absentia is entitled to reject the verdict and request a retrial, so the January verdict was set aside.

Moore. 45. told the court Boycott beat her at a hotel in the exclusive Riviera resort Cap d'Antibes on October 2. 1996.

She claimed the former England batsman beat her up to 20 times following an .argument over money.

Boycott denied beating her and said she fell during an argument.

Bui Moore's advocate drew the court's attention to photographs of his client showing she had two blacks eyes and said she could not possibly have fallen onto one eye and then the

Moore also gave the court a medical certificate showing her injuries kept her off work for five days. She said she suffered black eyes and bruising to her nose, cheeks, lips and jaw.