Panorama alleges that "fake sheikh" tricked people into criminal acts Sun on Sunday reporter Mazher Mahmood tricked people into criminal acts in order to write about them, according to an explosive Panorama investigation finally to be aired on Wednesday night after twice being delayed for legal reasons. Fake Sheikh: Exposed alleges that the police and prosecutors knew about Mahmood's methods, but failed to investigate properly, underlining question marks over the relationship between the police and the News of the World, Mahmood's old title. In the programme, which was bitterly contested by lawyers for Mahmood, former attorney general Lord Goldsmith suggested that the convictions he claims credit for need to be re-examined. Mahmood had argued in court that revealing his current appearance would breach his human rights by exacerbating the existing risk to his safety caused by his investigative work. Mahmood has denied acting improperly and says that Panorama's account of events is wrong and misleading. In July, Mahmood was suspended by the Sunday title owned by News UK, following the collapse of a trial involving the singer and former X-Factor judge Tulisa Contostavlos. The judge in the case suggested that Mahmood had attempted to persuade a witness to change his evidence and then lied about it under oath. There is an ongoing investigation into this case but no charges have yet been brought. Mahmood claims he used legitimate investigatory methods, which helped secure around 100 convictions during his 30-year career at newspapers, largely by posing as Arab royalty. The 30-minute documentary hears from alleged victims of Mahmood and former colleagues who accuse him of "criminal" acts. The programme also alleges that a murder inquiry in 1999 revealed links between corrupt police officers, a firm of private detectives called Southern Investigations and tabloid journalists including Mahmood. One document seen by Panorama said: "Source met Maz, a News of the World reporter ... on this occasion Maz was with a plainclothes officer ... The officer was selling a story to Maz. Mahmood insists he has never bought stories from police officers, but Panorama has been told that evidence suggesting that a number of tabloid journalists could be paying police officers should have led to a full scale inquiry - and did not. Several trials involing former tabloid journalists accused of paying public officials are ongoing. In the programme, one former Page 3 girl called Emma Morgan describes how she thought she was being offered a lucrative contract for a Middle East bikini calendar when she was 24 but instead fell victim to Mahmood's desire to expose her as a drug dealer. Put under pressure to supply cocaine by a man called Billy employed by Mahmood, she did so. Steve Grayson, who worked with Mahmood on numerous stories in the 1990s including this one, said of the takedown: "He is a drug dealer, we're drug dealers, we have paid this guy to supply the drugs to give to her." Billy told Panorama: "I'd like to apologise to Emma for my part in stitching her up. The only real criminal was Mazher Mahmood. He gave me the money to buy the cocaine. Morgan said: "I was a fool, I was naïve; to be foolish isn't a crime, to be naïve isn't a crime, to do what he did is criminal. I haven't had the career I should have had, I haven't had the life I should have had. He's a horrible, horrible man," she adds. Mahmood worked at the News of the World from 1991 until its closure and won several awards. The programme also explores the plot to kidnap Victoria Beckham and her children, which led to armed police arresting a gang of five men. In 2002, the News of the World reported that Mazher Mahmood had stopped the "crime of the century," but the Panorma reporter John Sweeney describes how one of the kidnap gang, a convicted criminal Florim Gashi, was being paid thousands of pounds to work with Mahmood. When the prosecution discovered Gashi had been paid by the News of the World and lied about it, the case collapsed. Five men had spent seven months in prison on remand. Mazher Mahmood denies the kidnap plot was invented but the judge was so troubled by the payment to Gashi that he referred it to the then attorney general, Lord Goldsmith; after taking legal advice he found there was nothing he could do. "The fact that somebody who has been accused by a judge of apparently not telling the truth may be instrumental in those convictions would certainly be a reason to look at those convictions again and to examine them to see whether they are safe," he told Panorama. Panorama also alleges that Mahmood told detectives he got information from prostitutes and drug addicts before going on to say: "I've got bent police officers that are witnesses, that are informants." Mahmood said any criticism of him comes from those he has exposed or people he has worked with who have an axe to grind. He tried to get the programme stopped, citing the need to remain anonymous for security reasons, the threat of criminal action as well as the credibility of the Panorama witnesses. The "fake sheikh" will soon learn if he's to face charges following the collapse of the Contostavlos trial. He denies perjury and perverting the course of justice. Already three cases based on his evidence have been dropped. Panorama Fake Sheikh: Exposed shown on BBC One at 19:30 GMT on Wednesday 12 November.