Tulisa Contostavlos and the sting that brought the Fake Sheikh down
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.
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