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Despite being one of the most famous tabloid journalists of his time, Mazher Mahmood had no desire for a life in the public eye.<\/p>\n
Over the course of his 20-year career, Mahmood became known for spearheading countless investigations that lead to criminal convictions and was celebrated by his industry for his work uncovering injustices.<\/p>\n
However, at the same time as undertaking public-interest projects, he was heavily criticised for crossing the line and setting up stings that saw lives and careers ruined.<\/p>\n
The most famous was that of former X Factor judge Tulisa, who in 2013 was arrested by police on suspicion of supplying Class- A drugs.<\/p>\n
Her charges had come about after Mahmood and his associates had concocted an elaborate scheme which saw the singer targeted and told that an influential film producer, whom the journalist posed as, wanted her to star in a Hollywood blockbuster.<\/p>\n
After meeting Tulisa at the Metropolitan Hotel in London in 2013, she allegedly arranged for Mahmood to be sold half an ounce of cocaine by one of her contacts for \u00a3800, evidence that was then handed to police and saw her facing trial.<\/p>\n
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This case \u2013 which was splashed across the pages of the now-defunct tabloid newspaper News of the World- and many others are documented in the upcoming three-part series The Fake Sheikh, which follows Mahmood\u2019s unlikely rise as he generated global headlines by using false identities to dupe A-list celebrities, sports stars, and even royals.<\/p>\n
Some of those who were stung by him, including former glamour model Emma Morgan and model Jodie Kidd speak about the impact of becoming wrapped up with the journalist and how it impacted their life and careers in the aftermath.<\/p>\n
As Jodie said, meeting and then getting involved with Mahmood was \u2018the biggest mistake of my life\u2019 after she was called a \u2018coke fixer\u2019 on a front page story, with her career \u2018disappearing\u2019 soon after.<\/p>\n
Reflecting on the impact now, Jodie explained how what unfolded \u2018destroyed\u2019 her family, and that it caused a rift with her brother, to whom she still doesn\u2019t speak to because of it.<\/p>\n
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\u2018I worked so hard to build these relationships and my career, just for a stupid moment that you were completely groomed and manipulated to make,\u2019 she said in the documentary. <\/p>\n
\u2018All of those years of tears and anger and pain because of this man.\u2019<\/p>\n
Going right back to try and unravel the motivations behind the man, who was also known as \u2018the King of the celebrity sting\u2019, the series speaks to some of his ex-colleagues as well, some of whom still defend many of the stories he produced.<\/p>\n
Throughout his career, Mahmood became known for posing as an Arab businessman as part of his stings, which earned him the infamous moniker \u2018The Fake Sheikh\u2019.<\/p>\n
Desperate to conceal his identity, Mahmood went to such lengths to maintain high levels of secrecy about who he was, he rarely ever visited the offices of the tabloid newspapers he worked for. <\/p>\n
It was also rumoured that written into his contract was a clause stating that his photograph would never be published.<\/p>\n
When featured in images to accompany his stories, Mahmood was instead shown as a silhouette next to his byline.<\/p>\n
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Born in Birmingham to parents who had migrated from Pakistan a few years earlier, Mahmood\u2019s first sting as a journalist came when he was just a teenager.<\/p>\n
Aged 18, he exposed family friends who sold pirated videos, which then secured him two weeks work at what was the biggest-selling UK tabloid in its heyday, News of the World.<\/p>\n
In 1989, as an 18-year-old he he joined the Sunday Times, where he worked for nearly three years before securing a full-time job at the tabloid where he\u2019d first dipped his toes in the media industry.<\/p>\n
During his years working both publications, which were both owned by Rupert Murdoch, Mahmood\u2019s investigations lead to a reported 94 convictions.<\/p>\n
In 2011 he won Reporter of The Year, Scoop of the Year and the Sports Journalists\u2019 Association award, for an investigation of cricket match-fixing.<\/p>\n
A year earlier, his sting had revealed Pakistan bowlers Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif, together with their captain Salman Butt, were involved in a betting scam.<\/p>\n
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The scandal had been uncovered after Mahmood posed as an Indian businessman and secretly filmed the player\u2019s agent arranging for no-balls to be deliberately bowled at specific moments in the fourth Test between England and Pakistan at Lord\u2019s.<\/p>\n
In return, he was paid \u00a3150,000.<\/p>\n
All three players later received cricketing bans and were later jailed.<\/p>\n
Other famous cases the undercover journalist led included the 2010 sting in which The Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson, appeared to offer access to her former husband Prince Andrew in exchange for \u00a3500,000.<\/p>\n
Mahmood, who posed as a businessman, recorded the duchess saying: \u2018Look after me and he\u2019ll look after you\u2026 you\u2019ll get it back tenfold. I can open any door you want.\u2019<\/p>\n
More than a decade earlier, he\u2019d also won acclaim in 1999 for his expos\u00e9 of Newcastle United bosses Freddy Shepherd and Douglas Hall, who mocked fans and branded Geordie women \u2018dogs\u2019 after taking Mahmood, posing as the sheikh, to a brothel in Marbella.<\/p>\n
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Another famous sting involving sporting figures unfolded in 2006 when then England football coach Sven-Goran Eriksson was recorded saying Aston Villa Football Club was for sale and that then England captain David Beckham would return from Real Madrid to play in England if Eriksson asked him to.<\/p>\n
He also said former England striker Michael Owen was not happy at Newcastle United.<\/p>\n
The expose was published six months before the World Cup in Germany.<\/p>\n
Despite still having two years left on his contract, Eriksson left the job soon after the tournament, with Mahmood\u2019s investigation largely suspected to have also played a part.<\/p>\n
In 2009 a sting involving a young actress who starred in Slumdog Millionaire also came to light when Mahmood published a report that alleged the father of Rubina Ali had tried to sell her for \u00a3200,000.<\/p>\n
While many of his stories received high praise from those in the industry and beyond, several of his other stings came under the spotlight and even sparked court cases when they were found to have operated under murky pretences.<\/p>\n
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One included a 2002 News of the World front page report that claimed Victoria Beckham had been the target of a \u00a35 million ransom plot.<\/p>\n
It was claimed that Mahmood and his reporters had infiltrated a gang and had managed to stop it happening.<\/p>\n
While five men were charged with conspiring to kidnap the former Spice Girls star, a subsequent trial collapsed after it emerged the paper had paid \u00a310,000 to a convicted criminal for his story and he could no longer be considered a reliable witness.<\/p>\n
One of the men involved later sued the paper for libel and won, however News of the World defended its \u2018thorough and legitimate investigation undertaken by one of the paper\u2019s most senior and experienced reporters\u2019.<\/p>\n
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Over the years Mahmood came under fire for his \u2018entrapment\u2019 approaches to stories, with people including Emma and Jodie also finding themselves in similar circumstances to Tulisa years earlier and facing drug convictions after police became involved.<\/p>\n
However, Mahmood\u2019s career came crashing down when Tulisa decided to fight back against a possible jail term and try to expose the methods he\u2019d been using for years.<\/p>\n
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During the course of Tulisa\u2019s drugs trial, Mahmood was found to have perverted the course of justice after his driver Alan Smith changed a police statement to remove comments that the singer made to him expressing her disapproval of hard drugs.<\/p>\n
After the case collapsed, Mahmood was charged and eventually jailed for 15 months after being found guilty of evidence tampering.<\/p>\n
Before his sentencing, his bosses at News UK released a statement saying it was \u2018disappointed by the news\u2019 he had been convicted.<\/p>\n
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Speaking after the verdicts, Tulisa\u2019s defence lawyer Ben Rose said the \u2018real scandal\u2019 had been Mahmood being able to \u2018operate as a wholly unregulated police force\u2019 in which he would \u2018investigate crimes without the safeguards which apply to the police\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u2018Investigative journalists do important work, but Mahmood clearly went too far,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n
\u2018That he and his driver have now been convicted of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice will hopefully deter other journalists from using entrapment to drive celebrity gossip stories.\u2019<\/p>\n
He added: \u2018Mahmood\u2019s actions brought his profession into disrepute and ruined hundreds of lives in pursuit of better circulation figures.\u2019<\/p>\n
During the Leveson Inquiry, which looked into the culture, practices and ethics of the British\u00a0press\u00a0following the\u00a0News International phone hacking scandal and ran between 2011 and 2012, Mahmood defended his actions, asserting that the \u2018ends justify the means\u2019.<\/p>\n
Since being released from prison Mahmood is reported to have changed his name and identity and is no longer working in the industry in which he made his name.<\/p>\n