Fake Sheikh Mazher Mahmood and his driver Alan Smith have been found guilty of conspiring to pervert the course of justice following a trial at the Old Bailey.

The former undercover News of the World reporter, 53, and Smith, 67, conspired to suppress evidence in the collapsed drugs trial of N-Dubz singer Tulisa Contostavlos.

The singer had been accused of arranging for Mahmood to be sold £800 of cocaine by one of her contacts following an elaborate sting for the Sun on Sunday in May 2013.

During a meeting at the Metropolitan Hotel in London, Mahmood pretended to be a film producer and plied Miss Contostavlos with alcohol as they discussed an acting role alongside Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio.

As Smith drove the former X Factor judge to her Hertfordshire home, she allegedly discussed a family member who had a drugs problem. When he was interviewed by police about the journey over a year later, Smith recalled the conversation.

However, a day later, after speaking to Mahmood and emailing his draft statement, the singer's anti-drugs comments were removed, the court heard.

At a pre-trial hearing, Mahmood denied being an "agent provocateur" or that he discussed the drugs conversation with Smith.

But when questioned at length in the trial, Mahmood appeared to concede he had talked to Smith about what Miss Contostavlos had said about drugs in the car.

Defence lawyer John Kelsey-Fry QC told jurors: "Mr Mahmood is not a policeman. He is a journalist.

"Whilst the prosecution may say he boasts of the number of convictions resulting from his work, securing convictions is not actually his job."

After her case collapsed in July 2014, Miss Constavlos said she had been the victim of "a horrific and disgusting entrapment". Mahmood, from Purley, south London, has been suspended by News UK since the collapse of the Tulisa trial.

The Criminal Cases Review Commission is currently reviewing six cases involving celebrities who were convicted following involvement with Mahmood.