Unreliable people good sources, says ‘fake sheikh’

News Corporation tabloid reporter Mazher Mahmood, known as the “fake sheikh” for the scoops he obtained by imitating a wealthy Arab, told an inquiry into media ethics that unreliable people are often good sources.

Mahmood, hired by the company’s Sunday Times newspaper after two decades at its now-defunct News of the World, said he continued using a source after police deemed the man an unreliable witness, resulting in the collapse of a trial over an alleged plot to kidnap Victoria Beckham.

“We deal with unreliable people all the time” and our job is to test what they’re saying and decide whether to use it, Mahmood told the judge-led inquiry in London. “I’ve had front-page splashes from crack addicts.” The public was cleared from the courtroom to keep Mahmood’s appearance secret.

The inquiry, a British government response to the phone-hacking scandal and alleged police bribery at the News of the World, has heard testimony from celebrities, authors and crime victims who said they were mistreated by the British press. News Corp closed the News of the World in July to try to stem public anger after it was revealed the tabloid hacked into the voice-mail messages of a murdered schoolgirl in 2002 to get stories.

The source Mahmood referred to gave him details about a criminal gang that led to a 2002 story about the plot against Beckham, the wife of footballer David Beckham. The story prompted a trial of five men, which collapsed after police decided the source — their key witness — was unreliable because News of the World paid him £10,000 for the information.

Mahmood told the inquiry he believes the source is reliable.

In December, Mahmood testified that his techniques, such as portraying different people to get stories, are justified because his articles resulted in 261 criminal prosecutions, including that of four men sentenced in connection to a Pakistani cricket bribery scandal last year.

Meanwhile, Mahmood admitted he once “foolishly” changed electronic records to cover up a mistake in his reporting.

Mahmood resigned from the Sunday Times in 1989 after executives discovered he had tampered with a file in the newspaper’s computer room.

He told the hearing: “I acknowledge it was wrong. I was young, I was naive, it was a foolish thing to do, I acknowledge that.”