The glittering career of the notorious “Fake Sheik” undercover reporter lies in tatters today after he was convicted of evidence tampering in the drugs trial of singer Tulisa. 
Mazher Mahmood spent 20 years going undercover to target the rich and famous, styling himself as the “king of the sting” as he exposed them as greedy, corrupt, and immoral. 
The “master of disguise” in Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper stable boasted he had secured 94 convictions, with names like Sven Goran Eriksson, George Galloway, and the Duchess of York on his hit list. 
However, the 52-year-old two-time Reporter of the Year now faces a possible spell behind bars, after an Old Bailey jury convicted him of perverting the course of justice. 
The Crown Prosecution Service is reviewing cases fuelled by Mahmood’s stings, and at least 18 of his previous targets are now preparing to sue him in the civil courts, it has emerged.  
Mahmood, together with his long-time driver Alan Smith, 66, plotted to change a police statement in the trial of former X Factor judge Tulisa, who faced claims she had organised for the supply of cocaine. 
The singer had been caught on camera by Mahmood and his team boasting about her own drug use, and apparently offering to cocaine, coded as “white sweets”, to be delivered to a suite at the Dorchester Hotel. 
Mahmood, working undercover for the The Sun on Sunday, was posing as a wealthy Indian film producer, offering Tulisa a starring role in his next movie alongside Leonardo DiCaprio. 
He handed the covertly shot footage to police and splashed the story on the front page, in July 2013, but as he trial loomed, Mahmood feared loose talk by his long-time driver, Alan Smith, 66, would scupper the prosecution case. 
Smith had let slip about Tulisa drunkenly ranting in the back of his car about hating cocaine and the damage it was doing to one of her relatives. 
Between them, Mahmood and Smith plotted to change the statement to remove this damaging revelation which could help the NDubz singer beat the charge. 
When the plot was uncovered, Tulisa’s trial collapsed and the spotlight swung on to Mahmood, the self-styled “world’s number one investigative journalist”, now accused of evidence tampering and lying on oath. 
The jury deliberated for two and a half days at the end of a tense two week trial before convicting both men of perverting the course of justice. 
“Mr Mahmood may be the master of subterfuge and deception, but on this occasion it is he, together with his employee, who are exposed”, said prosecutor Sarah Forshaw QC. 
Mahmood, who stayed silent during his trial, is now facing the end of his 20-year career, having built a legendary reputation at the now-defunct News of the World, the Sunday Times and the Sun on Sunday for delivering sensational scoops. 
He took home Scoop of the Year in 2011 for exposing members of the Pakistani cricket team as match-fixing cheats. 
And his sting of then-England manager Sven Goran Eriksson, caught on camera letting slip he wanted to sign for Aston Villa, hastened his departure from the FA set-up. 
However, Mahmood’s critics have long-said his methods are nothing more than entrapment. 
Actor John Alford was a rising star in TV’s London’s Burning when in 1997 he was stung by Mahmood, arranging a drug deal when he was offered a £1mn movie deal alongside Robert de Niro. 
Alford, who was subsequently jailed, admitted he was “wrong to sort out the deal”, but added: “If it wasn’t for Mahmood there would have been no drug deal. I wasn’t a drug dealer, I was an actor.”
Mahmood, often called to court as the star witness, argued it was “impossible” to trap his targets as they were already involved in criminal or immoral behaviour and he was simply exposing it. 
However, when the trial of Tulisa fell apart in July 2014, not only was Mahmood exposed for evidence tampering, but Judge Alistair McCreath accused him of lying under oath. 
“There are strong grounds for believing that Mr Mahmood told me lies”, he said. 
“There are also strong grounds for believing that the underlying purpose of these lies was to conceal the fact that he had been manipulating the evidence.”
His enemies have been circling since the collapse of the Tulisa trial at Southwark crown court, and solicitor Mark Lewis, who brought a string of claims in the phone hacking scandal, is representing 18 people who have fallen victim to Mahmood in the past.