Nicholas Hoogstraten should have faced a retrial for the killing of a landlord in the "interests of justice", an appeal court judge has said.

But, it was ruled, that was impossible as the law stands.

The Sussex millionaire was formally cleared of any involvement in the death of Mohammed Raja this week.

But Lord Justice Kennedy said the fact the charges were dropped before a trial "thwarts the interests of justice".

He said: "Those interests require that Mr Hoogstraten be retried."

The judge was delivering the full reasoning for the Court of Appeal decision which let Mr Hoogstraten walk free.

The tycoon was cleared of Mr Raja's murder in the main trial last year but sentenced to ten years' imprisonment for manslaughter.

The conviction was quashed on appeal.

He was reindicted but the retrial judge, Sir Stephen Mitchell, said even if the prosecution proved its case, Mr Hoogstraten could not be convicted of manslaughter.

Three appeal court judges, headed by Lord Justice Kennedy, said they did not have the power to consider a further appeal of this decision by the Crown Prosecution Service.

Lord Justice Kennedy said: "It is of some importance for an appellate appeal court to be able to consider whether the trial judge is right in his conclusion because, if he is, it is necessary to consider how justice is to be done in similar cases in the future.

"It may be that, when a retrial is ordered in the case of an appellant who has been convicted of manslaughter on a charge of murder, the prosecution should be entitled, if they choose, to seek again a conviction of murder.

"Otherwise, as this case and other cases have shown, the prosecution is likely to be neutered by the partial acquittal. But that is a matter for Parliament and not for this court."