Mazher Mahmood

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Mazher Mahmood in the '80s

Mazher Mahmood is an undercover reporter for the British newspaper News of the World. He is also known as the "fake sheikh" because he often poses as a sheikh in order to gain his target's trust.

He claims to have "brought more than 100 criminals to justice" [1]

Targets also include various society figures, most notably Sophie, Countess of Wessex, in 2001 [2], and Princess Michael of Kent in 2005. He also exposed Prince Harry's drug taking.

On 30 March 2006 the politician George Galloway claimed that Mahmood and an accomplice "sought to implicate me in what would be illegal political funding and sought my agreement to anti-Semitic views, including Holocaust denial". Galloway wrote to the Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, and the speaker of the House of Commons about the incident, saying that I believe this attempt to subvert the political process constitutes a breach of parliamentary privilege. In his letter to the Speaker's office Galloway also claimed that Mahmood had in the past deceived Diane Abbott and had sought a meeting with Jeremy Corbyn, both also prominent anti-war MPs.[3] [4]. The News of the World tried to secure a High Court injunction preventing publication of photographs of Mahmood, even on weblogs, but were granted only a temporary injunction, which expired on 7 April 2006.[5] Galloway sought to thwart this tactic by brandishing a photograph of Mahmood, during an interview on Channel 4 news.

Mahmood was responsible for reporting an alleged plot to kidnap Victoria Beckham to the police - the subsequent trial collapsed after it emerged that Mahmood's main informant, Florim Gashi had been paid £10,000 and could not be considered a reliable witness. Gashi was later deported from the UK. [6] [7] One of the men involved later sued the News of the World for libel but lost. [8].

In January 2006, Mahmood met up with England head coach Sven-Göran Eriksson, posing as a businessman interested in opening a sports academy, but Eriksson asked him to take over Aston Villa FC instead. Eriksson revealed how he would leave England after the World Cup to become Aston Villa manager, and that he would tap up David Beckham from Real Madrid to become captain.

He also was responsible for sending actor John Alford to prison for supplying cocaine. Alford claimed entrapment and demanded Mahmood's arrest; the trial judge made the observation that 'entrapment had clearly played a significant part in what he did, but greed had also been a major factor'. [9] However, when Alford appealed to the High Court and the European Court of Human Rights, the appeal was lost.

Other celebrity targets exposed for drugs have included BBC Radio 2's Johnnie Walker and Jimmi Harkishan of Coronation Street. Actor James Nesbitt and pop star Mick Jagger, and entertainer Lionel Blair were all exposed by Mahmood for adultery. Sophie Anderton was exposed by Mahmood as a prostitute.

Political targets of Mahmood's investigations have included Minister David Mellor, who resigned following his affair with actress Antonia de Sancha. Environment Minister Tim Yeo was caught cheating on his wife and his secret love child revealed. Government whip Michael Brown also resigned after Mahmood exposed him as gay. The News of the World printed photos of Brown on holiday with a 20 year old man. At the time the homosexual age of consent was 21.

Mahmood in "Fake Sheikh" guise

Targets in the sports world have included jockey Kieren Fallon who tipped off Mahmood about a race in which the jockey told him that he would lose moments before the race - which he did lose despite being way ahead.

Footballer John Barnes was caught by Mahmood twice cheating on his wife with two different lovers, and Ian Wright was also caught having an affair. Boxer Chris Eubank was nailed for exposing himself to a girl and footballer John Fashanu was exposed for match fixing. Fashanu offered to fix matches for Mahmood and took a cash deposit. After being exposed, Fashanu claimed he knew about the sting all along, and was going along to gather evidence for the police. [10]

So too did Pakistani cricketer Salim Malik who was expelled from the national cricket team as a result.

In September 2004 he posed as a Muslim extremist to "expose" three men who were trying to buy radioactive material for a suspected Muslim terrorist group seeking to carry out attacks in the United Kingdom. The men were later found not guilty following a trial at the Old Bailey The News of the World was criticised for not checking the credibility of the story before printing.[11][12]

Mahmood claims to have been involved in over 130 successful criminal prosecutions including alleged arms dealers, drug dealers, numerous immigration racketeers and several paedophiles. He has also been responsible for jailing a doctor who wanted his mistress - another doctor - to be murdered. Mahmood was taken on as a hit man.

He won the award "Reporter of the Year" for his exposé of Newcastle football bosses Freddie Shepherd and Douglas Hall who mocked fans and branded Geordie women "dogs" after taking Mahmood posing as the fake sheik to a brothel in Marbella.

He has repeatedly entered the UK in the back of lorries and using fake passports to highlight lax immigration rules. Corrupt Home Office officials and corrupt police officers, solicitors and crooked doctors have also been targets.

Prior to 1989 Mahmood was a reporter for The Sunday Times until dismissed by news editor Roy Greenslade for trying to cover up a mistake in a story.[13]