Tycoon faces life for killing rival
One of Britain’s wealthiest men was tonight facing a life sentence after being found guilty of killing a business associate who dared to challenge him.
Nicholas van Hoogstraten, more used to a life of luxury in his palatial mansion, was being held at top security Belmarsh prison after a jury decided he hired two thugs to exact revenge on father-of-six Mohammed Raja after they fell out over property.
After 37 hours and 49 minutes of deliberation, the panel of six men and six women cleared van Hoogstraten of murder but found him guilty of manslaughter, deciding he wanted Mr Raja harmed and not murdered.
Mr Raja, who van Hoogstraten described as ‘‘a maggot’’, was stabbed and shot at point-blank range at his home in Sutton, south London, in July, 1999.
Van Hoogstraten, 57, who is worth up to £500m (€782.6m) according to some estimates, was convicted by a majority of 11-1 at the Old Bailey.
Hitmen David Croke and Robert Knapp were found guilty of murder last Friday and were today sentenced to life.
Mr Justice Newman warned van Hoogstraten he was also considering a life sentence for him, but the millionaire opted for the judge’s offer of psychiatric assessment before sentencing on October 2.
Amjad Raja, 41, 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.’’
Van Hoogstraten, who has reportedly fathered five children from three different mothers, said nothing throughout his appearance in court today.
He wanted revenge after Mr Raja began court proceedings against him alleging fraud. Had the action succeeded, van Hoogstraten would have faced criminal proceedings and possible jail.
He decided to teach the 62-year-old a lesson and asked Knapp - an old friend and enforcer he met in prison decades before - to take care of it. Knapp took Croke, another ex-convict, with him.
They went disguised as gardeners to the leafy suburban street where Mr Raja lived.
Their victim already feared he was in danger and was probably armed with a knife when he answered the door.
Raja’s grandsons, who were upstairs at the time, heard raised voices followed by a loud bang.
When they ran down stairs, they found him holding his chest. Raja was stabbed five times and also shot in the face with a sawn-off shotgun.
‘‘He pleaded in Punjabi. He said, ‘They are Hoogstraten’s men and they have hit me’,’’ a grandson, Rizvan Raja, 20, told the trial.
As he sentenced Croke and Knapp, Mr Justice Newman said they were ‘‘plainly very dangerous men indeed’’.
He said there was ‘‘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, of Bolney Road, Moulsecoomb, Brighton, and Knapp, 55, of Convent Street, Abbeyfeale, Co Limerick, chose not to be in court for sentencing. They had denied murder.
Van Hoogstraten was listed 595th in the 2002 Sunday Times Rich List - putting him above rock mega-stars like Sting and Rod Stewart.
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.
His fortune is based on a property empire built up ruthlessly and administered through fear.
Van Hoogstraten, once described by a judge as an ‘‘emissary of Beelzebub’’, would terrorise his tenants, who he described as ‘‘filth’’.
He also scared another of his former associates - Michaal Hamdan - who fled to the Lebanon shortly before he was due to give evidence in van Hoogstraten’s trial. Van Hoogstraten denied he was responsible.
Mr Justice Newman referred the tycoon’s girlfriend Tanika Sali to the Attorney General after she also changed her mind about testifying as a prosecution witness. She retracted her police statements and refused to go into the witness box.
The jury was not given round-the-clock protection during the trial, but unusually, the jurors were taken by bus to court each day from a pre-arranged point, with police or court officials on board.
The panel heard van Hoogstraten ridicule the prosecution’s case that he had paid Knapp around £7,000 (€11,000) by instalment for the attack.
Although a multi-millionaire, police found teabags drying on a draining board when they searched his premises.
Bouffant-haired van Hoogstraten, casually but expensively dressed, gave evidence for several days at the Old Bailey.
Known as Britain’s most-hated landlord, van Hoogstraten accepted he had a volcanic temper and had in the past threatened to kill people. He even admitted threatening a judge.
But he told the court: ‘‘There have been no dead bodies.’’
Speaking after the case, Amjad Raja vowed to continue the fraud case against van Hoogstraten.
Detective Inspector Andy Sladen said: ‘‘My experience of Mr van Hoogstraten is of a person of extreme arrogance.
‘‘He thought he was above the law - today’s verdict shows he is not.’’
