Nicholas Hoogstraten stepped back into the spotlight today as he launched a battle to clear his name - a year and a day after he was jailed for ten years.

The millionaire landlord, who lives in Framfield, near Uckfield, has been held at high-security Belmarsh Prison for the past 12 months after being convicted of arranging to have a business associate killed.

But this morning, smartly dressed in a dark suit, blue shirt and blue tie, he arrived at the High Court in London to begin the appeal hearing against his conviction.

Screens were erected outside the court to prevent the assembled throng of cameramen getting a glimpse of the man who once described himself as the "devil's landlord" as his blacked-out prison van arrived.

Court Five was packed with Press, associates of the millionaire prisoner and relatives of Mohammed Sabir Raja, a businessman gunned down on his doorstep by two hired henchmen in July 1999. Hoogstraten strolled into court at 10.37am, seven minutes late.

He surveyed the courtroom for a moment from behind a pair of tinted spectacles as his counsel apologised for his late arrival.

Then he settled down to listen to the application, which is expected to last for three days, before Lord Justice Rose, Mr Justice McCombe and Mrs Justice Cox.

The tycoon is attempting to overturn his conviction for the manslaughter of Mr Raja on a point of law.

His trial last year heard how he paid heroin addicts David Croke and Robert Knapp to threaten the grandfather during an ongoing dispute.

The multi-millionaire claims the presiding judge misdirected the jury on the law, rendering his conviction "unsafe".

Robert Knapp, 55, of Co Limerick, and David Croke, 60, of Moulsecoomb, Brighton, were both jailed for life for Mr Raja's murder. Their appeals were also being heard today in their absence.

Hoogstraten claims that Mr Justice Newman's direction to the jurors on the issue of manslaughter was inadequate and he failed to direct them to acquit if they were not certain Hoogstraten meant the two to kill Raja.

Outlining the tycoon's plea, Peter Kelson QC said the issue of manslaughter was only raised at the last minute. Until then, he said, the prosecution team, headed by David Walters QC, had "pinned their colours to the mast" by pressing for a murder conviction.

Mr Kelson told the court: "Only when the chinks appeared in the case did they move to consider the possibility of manslaughter."

Mr Kelson said if the shift had been made earlier in the trial Hoogstraten's original defence counsel could have taken a different approach.

Lord Justice Rose replied: "But this happens time and again in murder cases."

But Mr Kelson added: "The direction of manslaughter was crucial. It did not include reference to a loaded firearm that was to be discharged.

"Everybody's mind was focused firmly on the issue which had been tried for three months - a contract killing for murder."