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Tulisa Contostavlos’s trial for allegedly brokering a cocaine deal worth £820 has been thrown out of court, the jury has heard.
The singer had stood accused of boasting that she could “sort out” a large supply of cocaine for an undercover journalist, Mazher ‘Fake Sheikh’ Mahmood.
It was claimed that she’d put him in touch with her rapper friend Mike GLC, who supplied the Class A drug to Mahmood in May 2013.
Mahmood had posed as a wealthy film producer called Samir Khan when he met the former X Factor judge at a string of luxury hotels and restaurants, jurors at London's Southwark Crown Court heard.
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Contostavlos had vehemently denied brokering the deal, which was exposed by the Sun on Sunday newspaper in June 2012.
But today (21 July), Judge Alistair McCreath told the jury that the case “cannot go any further” because there were “strong grounds to believe” that Mr Mahmood had “lied” at a hearing before the trial started.
The 26-year-old star was seen smiling broadly in the dock as the jury was formally discharged, PA reports.
“There are strong grounds for believing Mr Mahmood told me lies,” Judge McCreath told the jury.
He said that a number of things had happened in the case which had thrown up “considerable considerations” and that the trial could not proceed if the prosecution had been “tainted by some serious misconduct”.
He recounted jury evidence given by the Mahmood, whose evidence is central to the case.
Mahmood could now theoretically face perjury charges.