Mazher Mahmood was born on 22 March 1963 and is a British journalist who was convicted of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
35 Facts About Mazher Mahmood
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Mazher Mahmood spent 20 years working for the News of the World and the Sunday Times, during which time he was responsible for numerous investigations, including a reputed 94 that led to convictions.
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Mazher Mahmood won Reporter of the Year in 2011, as well as Scoop of the Year and the Sports Journalists' Association award, for an investigation of cricket match-fixing.
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In July 2014, Mazher Mahmood was suspended from the Sun on Sunday after a trial collapsed against former X Factor judge and singer Tulisa, with concerns voiced by a judge that Mazher Mahmood might have perjured himself.
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In October 2016, Mazher Mahmood was jailed for 15 months after being found guilty of conspiring to pervert the course of justice.
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Mazher Mahmood was born in Small Heath, Birmingham, on 22 March 1963, the second of two sons of Sultan and Shamim Mahmood, journalists from Pakistan who had come to Britain three years earlier.
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Mazher Mahmood first gained employment as a journalist at the age of 18, exposing family friends who sold pirate videos.
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Mazher Mahmood then worked for the Sunday Times, which he joined in 1989.
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Mazher Mahmood maintained high levels of secrecy, and said he rarely visited the News International offices.
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Mazher Mahmood is reputed to be accompanied on occasions by a bodyguard, said to be his second cousin Mahmood Qureshi, who has posed as businessman Pervaiz Khan.
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Mazher Mahmood's targets included various society figures, including Sophie, Countess of Wessex, in 2001, Princess Michael of Kent in 2005, and Sarah, Duchess of York, in 2010.
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On 30 March 2006, Respect Party politician George Galloway said that Mazher Mahmood, using his "fake sheikh" disguise and working for the News of the World, attempted to trap him in a sting operation at a meeting in the Dorchester Hotel with businessmen from the Middle East.
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Galloway said that Mazher Mahmood tried but failed to implicate him in illegal party funding, and to agree with antisemitic statements.
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Mazher Mahmood released photographs of Mahmood on the internet, distributed the images to other MPs and the royal family, and revealed other aspects of Mahmood's activities.
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Mazher Mahmood won the "Reporter of the Year" award in 1999 for his expose of Newcastle United bosses Freddy Shepherd and Douglas Hall, who mocked fans and branded Geordie women "dogs" after taking Mazher Mahmood, posing as the sheikh, to a brothel in Marbella.
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Fashanu offered to fix matches for Mazher Mahmood and took a cash deposit.
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In January 2006, Mazher Mahmood met England head coach Sven-Goran Eriksson, posing as a businessman interested in opening a sports academy.
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In May 2010, Mazher Mahmood exposed snooker player John Higgins and his agent Pat Mooney for apparently agreeing to fix the outcome of future individual frames which would not necessarily alter the course of a match.
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Mazher Mahmood's name came under the limelight when, in August 2010, he posed as an Indian businessman to expose the cricket bookie Mazhar Majeed who claimed Pakistani cricketers Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Asif, Salman Butt had committed spot-fixing during Pakistan's 2010 tour of England; the team was accused of deliberately bowling three no-balls.
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Mazher Mahmood reported the revelations that actor John Alford was supplying cocaine, for which he was imprisoned.
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In 1999, after a Mazher Mahmood investigation exposed the Earl of Hardwicke and another man as drug dealers, the jury sent a note to the judge explaining that they had reached their decision to convict the two men with great reluctance.
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Mazher Mahmood discussed criticisms of his methods in a televised interview in 2008 with the BBC's Emily Maitlis on The Andrew Marr Show.
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In 2003, Mazher Mahmood was responsible for reporting an alleged plot to kidnap Victoria Beckham to the police.
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In 2004, Mazher Mahmood led an investigation into exposing the creation of a dirty bomb, through the supply of the fictitious substance red mercury, to three men from a supposed terrorist group.
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Mazher Mahmood was registered as an informant for the Metropolitan Police Anti-Terrorist Branch during the story, which led to a criminal case prosecution by the Crown Prosecution Service.
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Judge Alistair McCreath told Southwark Crown Court that he thought Mazher Mahmood had lied in giving evidence.
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The Sun On Sunday announced that Mazher Mahmood had been suspended.
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On 21 October 2016, Mazher Mahmood was jailed for 15 months after being found guilty of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
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The programme aired despite legal efforts by Mazher Mahmood to prevent recent pictures of himself being shown, and a request from the Attorney General to stop the broadcast.
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The programme included allegations that Mazher Mahmood's methods included payments to third parties who procured the drugs that his targets would later be exposed as supplying, and that he made offers of scarcely believable career opportunities to targets with no recent history of drug misuse, who were then pressured to obtain cocaine.
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The programme included unseen footage of Mazher Mahmood rehearsing with a known drug dealer for the entrapment of former Page 3 model Emma Morgan.
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Gashi claimed Mazher Mahmood was complicit with him in inventing the kidnapping plot.
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Mazher Mahmood has won various newspaper awards, including British Press Awards "Reporter of the Year" 1999 for his expose of Newcastle United directors.
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Mazher Mahmood won the Sports Journalists' Association award in 2010 for an investigation of cricket match-fixing.
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In January 2013, Mazher Mahmood was nominated for the Services to Media award at the British Muslim Awards.