Multi-millionaire faces life sentence

ONE of Britain's wealthiest men was facing a life sentence today after being convicted of killing a business associate who dared to challenge him.

Nicholas van Hoogstraten hired two thugs to exact revenge on father-of-six Mohammed Raja after they fell out over property.

But, although he wanted Mr Raja harmed, he had not wanted him murdered, a Old Bailey jury decided, on the eighth day of deliberations.

The panel of six men and six women returned a verdict of not guilty to murder but found him guilty of manslaughter, by a majority of 11-1.

After sentencing the hitmen, David Croke and Robert Knapp, to life, trial judge Mr Justice Newman warned van Hoogstraten he was considering a life sentence for him too. Van Hoogstraten opted for a psychiatric report before his final sentencing on October 2.

Van Hoogstraten, 57, said nothing throughout his entire appearance in court yesterday sitting almost entirely out of view in the dock.

The multi-millionaire, in a grey suit, blue shirt and tie, shook hands and spoke briefly with his solicitor and counsel before he was led to the cells flanked by three prison officers. He briefly smiled to a former girlfriend.

Mr Amjad Raja, the victim's son, said after the case: "He has destroyed our family and has taken away from us a wonderful father who would have done anything for his children."

Their father was stabbed and shot at point-blank range at his home in Sutton, south London, on July 2, 1999.

The 62-year-old landlord was taking civil court proceedings against van Hoogstraten, alleging fraud, the jury heard. Had he succeeded, van Hoogstraten would have faced criminal proceedings and possible jail. He decided to teach the man he described as "a maggot" a lesson. He asked Knapp an old friend and enforcer he met in prison decades before to take care of it. But it went too far.

Knapp took Croke, another ex-convict, with him. Both were convicted of murder by the jury last Friday.

Mr Justice Newman said as he sentenced Croke and Knapp to life yesterday that they were "plainly very dangerous men indeed".

"It is the place of everyone to consider what brings men to take a sawn-off shotgun and a knife to an elderly man and, having stabbed him fatally, to shoot him in the head at a range of six to 12 inches," he said.

"In this case, no remorse between the stabbing and the shooting, no hesitation, simply delay, simply to reload the shotgun.

"No holding back in the presence in the house of the grandsons, no apparent concern for the horror they had to witness, no remorse in this court, no motive to the killing, save one, greed, greed for some money or the receipt of favours."

Both Croke, 59, and Knapp, 55, chose not to be in court for sentencing. The jury announced its verdict on the tycoon yesterday after 37 hours, 49 minutes' deliberation.

Van Hoogstraten is thought to have a £500 million fortune ranking him alongside the Rothschilds.

He has a neo-classical copper-domed mansion said to be the most expensive private house built in Britain for a century near Uckfield, East Sussex, but he will now spend the next few weeks in high-security Belmarsh jail in south London undergoing psychiatric assessment.

His fortune is based on a property empire built up ruthlessly and administered through fear.