Reproduced from The Herald 4 November, 1998

The disgraced actor, who had two top 10 chart successes in the mid 1990s as a singer, was caught red-handed selling £240 worth of cocaine and cannabis to a man he believed was an Arabian royal.

However the deal played out before a hidden camera in London's Savoy Hotel was an elaborate sting stage-managed by a Sunday tabloid.

Alford, since sacked from his £50,000 a year role as a heart-throb fireman in the LWT series, was so thoroughly fooled by the performance that he bowed when he entered the room.

While he briefly wondered whether he might have been set up by either Jeremy Beadle or Noel Edmonds, he never suspected the "sheikh" with his convincingly accented pidgin English, his Arab head-dress, flowing robes and seemingly servile retinue, was an undercover journalist.

When he learned the truth the day before the News of the World splashed his downfall, he panicked and burst out crying.

For more than a week the actor, who was remanded in custody after his sentence was adjourned to December 4, vehemently protested his innocence as his barrister argued entrapment and abuse of process in a bid to get the case dropped.

But Judge Stephen Robbins ruled that while "undercover subterfuge" was used by the newspaper's investigative team, Alford perfectly willingly supplied 2.037g of cocaine and 11.9g of cannabis resin.

Immediately after his decision, the actor, who also spent many years in the popular Grange Hill television series, reconsidered his position. Following legal advice he then changed his pleas and admitted two drugs supply charges in August of last year.

He also pleaded guilty to a further count of offering to supply a quantity of cocaine for 60 guests at a non-existent party the bogus sheikh had invited him to. The actor, who looked shocked when the judge told him he faced an inevitable prison sentence, then asked for permission to address the court.

"The only reason I am pleading guilty is I know deep down in my heart I am not guilty of these crimes, but my friend and barrister has indicated I have no defence and that is the only reason I am doing this."

Opening the case at Southwark Crown Court, Mr Martin Hicks, prosecuting, said the actor - charged in his real name John Shannon - was a performer of "considerable renown".

He had been on the stage since the age of nine and in August of last year, by which time he was an increasingly valued member of the London's Burning cast, "his future must have looked rosy".

However, he was to experience a "tragic reversal of that fortune". He told the court that it had begun with a phone call to Alford's agent from a woman posing as the personal assistant of His Royal Highness Sheikh Mohammed Al-Kareen from Dubai.

Alford was told that he could earn up to 100,000 by joining a celebrity line-up on the opening night of a Dubai nightclub.

Mr Hicks said the conversation with the duped actor eventually turned to drugs and cocaine. The actor was secretly recorded giving assurances that he could obtain drugs and would get them himself.

A spokesman for the News of the World said: "The decision of the judge to accept evidence compiled against John Alford by the News of the World is a triumph for all investigative journalists.

"The paper received information that Mr Alford was dealing in and abusing drugs Undercover reporters and photographers were able to amass enough evidence to substantiate and publish the story.

"Judge Stephen Robbins pointed out that the News of the World had used subterfuge, but this was justified because a crime had been exposed." Not Available for Re-dissemination.