Mazher Mahmood
| Mazher Mahmood | |
|---|---|
| Born |
22 March 1963 Small Heath, Birmingham, United Kingdom |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Investigative journalist |
| Years active | 1981–2014 |
| Known for | Undercover exposés in character as 'The Fake Sheikh' |
| Criminal charge | Conspiracy to pervert the course of justice |
| Criminal penalty | 15 months imprisonment |
Mazher Mahmood (born 22 March 1963) is an undercover British journalist who has worked mainly for the tabloid press. He 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. He 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. Later, from its foundation in 2012, he worked for the Sun on Sunday, successor to the News of the World.
Mahmood became known popularly as the "fake sheikh" because he often posed as a sheikh during the course of his investigations. In addition to numerous highly regarded public-interest investigations, he attracted allegations of breaking the law without any clear public-interest justification, including several episodes in which he was accused of entrapment.
In July 2014, Mahmood was suspended from the Sun on Sunday after a trial collapsed against former X Factor judge and singer Tulisa Contostavlos, with concerns voiced by a judge that Mahmood might have perjured himself. In October 2016, Mahmood was sentenced to 15 months' imprisonment after being found guilty of conspiring to pervert the course of justice.
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.
Mahmood first gained employment as a journalist at the age of 18, exposing family friends who sold pirate videos. This gained him two weeks work at the News of the World, after which he started freelancing at the Sunday People. In 1984, while trying with fellow journalist Roger Insall to expose a vice-ring at the Metropole Hotel at the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham, he first used the sheikh disguise when inviting prostitutes to a hotel room.
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