- John Alford lost his £120,000-a-year TV job after the 1997 Fake Sheikh sting
- Alford, 41, supplied cocaine and cannabis to Mazher Mahmood at a meeting
- He said Mahmood tricked him with the prospect of working with De Niro
- Alford now believes after Tulisa’s court victory he could now be cleared
- He has worked as a builder and a minicab driver since prison release
- However, he was banned from driving in 2006 after a drink-driving crash
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Former London’s Burning star John Alford said his life was destroyed by the Fake Sheikh Mazher Mahmood who promised him a role in a Robert De Niro movie in exchange for drugs.
The star, who was earning £120,000-a-year on the hit ITV show, was jailed for nine months in April 1999 after an investigation by the News of the World.
Following his release from prison, Alford found it difficult to secure new acting roles because of his conviction.
Actor John Alford lost his £120,000-a-year job playing Bily Ray on London’s Burning after the 1997 sting
Alford, pictured leaving Pentonville Prison in London, was jailed for nine months in April 1999 after the case
He was later banned for 16 months in January 2006 for drink-driving after a crash in Islington, North London in April 2005
Now Alford hopes, following the acquittal of Tulisa Contostavlos on cocaine charges, his own conviction from 1999 could be overturned due to the unreliable nature of Mahmood’s evidence.
At the time of his conviction, Alford, 41, was one of the highest profile actors in Britain playing baby-faced fireman Billy Ray on London’s Burning.
The show was watched by up to 18 million viewers a week, but once the story emerged, ITV sacked the actor.
He told The Sunday People: ‘The fake sheikh ruined my life. When I heard Tulisa had walked free I was so pleased her nightmare was over.
‘But I’ve been living my own nightmare for 17 years. I’m just glad people are finally raising concerns about the way this man operates.’
He added: ‘I was wrong to sort out the deal and I’ve been paying for it ever since. If it wasn’t for Mahmood there would have been no drug deal. I wasn’t a drug dealer, I was an actor. But after the court case, that was it – I couldn’t get work.’
Alford, pictured, is now planning a comeback in a football comedy called ‘What’s the Score?’
After his release from prison, Alford, pictured working on a central London building site, has struggled to secure acting roles claiming that the Fake Sheikh ruined his life luring him with offers of Hollywood
The father-of-two revealed that since his conviction other actors and producers would threaten to pull out of projects if his name was involved.
However, he is currently planning an on-screen comeback in a football comedy called ‘What’s The Score?’
Alford claimed he was convinced Mahmood was a real sheikh called Mohammed Al-Kareen because he was wearing an expensive Rolex watch and was travelling around in Rolls Royce.
Alford said he hoped the acquittal of Tulisa could lead to his case being reviewed over Mahmood’s tactics claiming he had been set up by the sting
He said he had been invited to the meeting with the Fake Sheikh at the Savoy Hotel in London in 1997.
Alford was offered the chance to attend the celebrity opening of a nightclub in Dubai – where he would get the chance to meet Robert De Niro and Sylvester Stallone and possibly work with them in future.
During this meeting, Mahmood asked whether Alford would be able to supply some cocaine and cannabis on his behalf.
Judge Stephen Robbins at Snaresbrook Crown Court told Alford: ‘You were undoubtedly motivated by the desire to earn even more money than you were earning as a successful actor, believing you would be opening a night-club in Dubai.
‘There was a strong element of entrapment but you willingly went along with the idea.
‘You had plenty of opportunity when you left to fetch these drugs to distance yourself from it.’
Judge Robbins said he had to take into account Alford’s previous cocaine use where he spent up to £500 a time on the drug.
During the trial, Mahmood told the court that he had heard from an unnamed showbiz contact that Alford was regularly dealing cocaine at parties and at his home.
Alford said while he had previously used cocaine, he had never dealt it before meeting the Fake Sheikh.
Alford received a nine month sentence for supplying two grammes of cocaine and a two month concurrent sentence for providing 12 grammes of cannabis. He was also ordered to pay £3,000 towards the prosecution’s costs.
The actor was filmed by three hidden cameras when he returned to the hotel room with the drugs, including three wraps of cocaine and a small slab of cannabis resin.
His QC David Etherington said Alford had been the victim of a ‘professional sting’ designed to ‘ruin and publicly humiliate him’.
Alford, pictured, was later convicted of drink driving in January 2006 after crashing his car in Islington, London
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