‘Fake Sheikh’ Mazhar Mahmood jailed for 15 months for lying

LONDON: Undercover British-Pakistani reporter Mazher Mahmood has been jailed for 15 months after being found guilty of tampering with evidence in the collapsed drug trial of singer Tulisa Contostavlos.

After a two-week Old Bailey trial this month, 53-year-old Mahmood (the self-styled “king of the sting”) and his driver Alan Smith were found guilty of conspiring to pervert the course of justice by changing a police statement and lying under oath.

After the judge jailed Mazher Mahmood, known as ‘fake sheikh’, several of his victims gathered outside the Old Bailey and expressed their joy. Mazhar Majeed, who was the central character in Pakistani cricketers’ match-fixing scandal, told this correspondent that he was joyous that Mazhar Mahmood has met his “natural fate”.

Mazhar Majeed said outside the court that he was never involved in any wrongdoing, but Mazhar Mahmood trapped him into a “dirty plot” to bring Pakistani cricket down.

Mark Lewis, who represents several victims of Mahmood in civil damage cases, told The News that Mazhar’s conviction was a great day for justice. He said Mazhar Mahmood ruined many innocent lives.  

Mahmood and Smith were convicted of conspiring to suppress evidence in the trial of the former N-Dubz singer and X-Factor judge, which was thrown out at Southwark crown court in July 2014.

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News UK said it was terminating Mahmood’s employment, but that it would “vigorously defend” any civil claims brought against it as a result of his activity.

A spokeswoman said: “Mazher has led scores of successful investigations during his 25-year career with the company. His work has led to the exposure of criminality and wrongdoing. It is a source of great regret that his time with the company should end in this manner. We have noted the threats made after Mazher’s conviction of civil claims against this company in relation to his previous work. Should such claims be brought, they will be vigorously defended.”

Judge Gerald Gordon said Mahmood would serve half his sentence before being released on licence. Smith was given a 12-month suspended sentence.

Sentencing Mahmood, the judge said: “It was your idea. You were the intended beneficiary. The motive was to protect and enhance your reputation. You wanted another scalp and Tulisa Contostavlos’s conviction would have allowed that, and to achieve that, when you saw a problem, you were prepared for the court to be deceived.”

Mahmood’s lawyer John Kelsey-Fry QC told the judge: “He stands before you a very frightened man.”

Kelsey-Fry added that over the years Mahmood had been responsible for sending many individuals to prison and had worked with police. “Mr Mahmood is not expected to be the most welcome, nor the most popular, inmate,” he said, adding prison would be “much harder” because of that.

 “He has brought a catastrophe upon himself,” said Kelsey-Fry. “A lifetime’s work will be forever tarnished.”

He had received awards and recognition. “So whatever people may say of him today that career has provided some valued service.”

The judge said he took into account Mahmood’s previous good character, “and accepted that in the course of your career you have done some good work in the past”. Mahmood was also ordered to pay £30,000 legal costs. It’s understood that News International will pay the costs.

Referring to Smith, the judge said Mahmood had “made use of a loyal person, partly an employee, in order to achieve your purpose”.

The judge told the duo: “You have been convicted by the jury of conspiring to pervert the course of justice. You, and Alan Smith, agreed to and did alter your original witness statement to remove the passage that you both realised could be used to support Tulisa Contostavlos’s case in an entrapment hearing.”

Following Mahmood’s conviction, the Crown Prosecution Service has dropped a number of live cases and reviewed 25 past convictions. Six have been taken up by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC).

Since his conviction, figures including The Duchess of York and Seven Goran Eriksson, have announced plans for legal action over Mahmood’s stings.

Speaking after the case, former London's Burning star John Alford said: 'It's taken over 20 years for some of us, but finally a judge and a jury of our peers have woken up to Mazher Mahmood's lies.' The actor fell foul to a similar cocaine sting involving Tulisa in 1997 and was found guilty despite insisting he was set up.