The Sun journalist Mazher Mahmood AKA the 'Fake Sheikh' has been found guilty of plotting to pervert the course of justice in the collapsed 2014 Tulisa Contostavlos trial
'Fake Sheikh' Mazher Mahmood is facing jail for tampering with evidence in the collapsed drugs trial of pop star Tulisa Contostavlos.
Following a two-week trial at the Old Bailey, a jury found the 53-year-old 'King of the Sting' (pictured above) and his driver, Alan Smith, 67, guilty of plotting to pervert the course of justice.
The pair conspired to suppress evidence in the N-Dubz star’s trial, which was thrown out at Southwark Crown Court in July 2014.
The singer had been accused of arranging for Mahmood to be sold £800 of cocaine by one of her contacts following an elaborate sting for The Sun on Sunday in May 2013.
During a meeting at the Metropolitan Hotel in London, Mahmood posed as a film producer and plied Tulisa with alcohol as they discussed an acting role alongside Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio.
As Smith drove the former X Factor judge home to Hertfordshire, she allegedly spoke about a family member who had a drugs problem.
When he was interviewed by police about the journey more than a year later, Smith, of Dereham, Norfolk, recalled the conversation.
But a day later, after speaking to Mahmood and emailing his draft statement, the singer’s anti-drugs comments were removed, the court heard.
At a pre-trial hearing, Mahmood denied being an 'agent provocateur' or that he discussed the drugs conversation with Smith.
But when he was questioned at length in the trial, Mahmood appeared to concede he had talked to Smith about what Tulisa said about drugs in the car.
Neither defendant gave evidence but it was said on Mahmood’s behalf that there had been a 'misunderstanding' of his evidence as he was 'steamrollered' with multi-faceted questions.
And Tulisa’s comments in the car would not have stacked up against the 'clear and incontrovertible evidence' against her, it was claimed.
Defence lawyer John Kelsey-Fry QC told jurors: “Mr Mahmood is not a policeman. He is a journalist. Whilst the prosecution may say he boasts of the number of convictions resulting from his work, securing convictions is not actually his job.”
He said Mahmood’s whole investigation was about exposing the pop star’s private face 'smoking weed' and 'arranging cocaine for mates' set against her public persona as a 'role model'.
Smith’s lawyer Trevor Burke QC challenged jurors to try to remember, as his client had done, conversations and events a year earlier.
After her case collapsed in July 2014, Tulisa claimed to reporters she had been the victim of 'a horrific and disgusting entrapment'.
For more than 25 years, Mahmood has enjoyed a position as 'King of the Sting' at the now defunct News of the World, the Sunday Times and Sun on Sunday, with Smith as his 'right-hand man'.
Mahmood, from Purley, south London, has been suspended by News UK since the collapse of the Tulisa trial.
He claims to have helped put more than 100 criminals behind bars and risked his life on a daily basis to lift the lid on the murky world of crime.
Paedophiles, arms dealers and drug dealers have all found themselves at the centre of his stories, as have celebrities and public figures, including the Countess of Wessex, who was taped calling the Queen 'the old dear', and Sven-Goran Eriksson, who revealed his plans to quit as England head coach.
The Crown Prosecution Service has since dropped a number of live criminal cases in which Mahmood was due to be a witness and announced a review of 25 past convictions.
The Criminal Cases Review Commission is currently reviewing six cases involving celebrities who were convicted following involvement with Mahmood.
