Jailed tycoon Nicholas Hoogstraten is in solitary confinement after trying to take out a contract on his two hitmen, a national newspaper has reported.

The News of the World alleged Hoogstraten wanted revenge on Robert Knapp and David Croke, whom he hired to threaten business rival Mohammed Raja.

It is claimed he tried to take out a contract to kill the pair from inside high-security Belmarsh jail, London, after learning they offered to give evidence against him.

Prison governors put the slum landlord into solitary confinement when they were told about the threat, the paper claimed yesterday.

Hoogstraten was convicted of manslaughter and jailed for ten years. The judge accepted he did not want Mr Raja, who was murdered at his Surrey home in 1999, killed.