Tulisa Contostavlos and the sting that brought the Fake Sheikh down
n In June 2013, following an elaborate sting by
‘Fake Sheikh’ Mazher Mahmood for the News of The
World - involving luxury hotel suites and the prospect of a £3.5m role in a (non-existent) Bollywood
film - Tulisa Contostavlos was accused of fixing a
cocaine deal and was later charged by police with a
Class A drug offence. Contostavlos pleaded not guilty
to the charge and, during the trial, it emerged that
Mahmood might have lied about whether he had
encouraged a key witness to change his statement.
As a result, the case collapsed with the Judge telling
the jury that there were ‘strong grounds to believe’
Mahmood had lied on oath. Mazher Mahmood was
later prosecuted and imprisoned. See opposite.
zoom-in Winter 2016 | 5