Property tycoon Nicholas Hoogstraten today denied kidnapping an associate and driving him to Paris in a car boot.

However, he admitted spitting at a "weirdo" in a kaftan.

This incident took place at the former home of alleged hitman Robert Knapp, the Old Bailey was told.

On another occasion, Hoogstraten assaulted a bailiff and was charged with causing actual bodily harm, the jury heard.

Hoogstraten, who is accused of murdering landlord Mohammed Raja, was being cross-examined by David Waters, prosecuting, about a TV documentary featuring the tycoon.

In the ITV World In Action programme from 1989, Hoogstraten admitted: "I am probably ruthless and I am probably violent."

Hoogstraten today said: "Those words were not mine. They were put into my mouth by the direct question I was asked by the reporter.

"The word ruthless is a word I have never used in my life."

He said the word was originally used about him by an accountant who stole money from him in the early Seventies and then fled to Paris.

Hoogstraten told the court: "I got very irate about it and beat him up. It is one of the very rare occasions I have physically assaulted someone."

However, Hoogstraten did admit he was fined for assault causing actual bodily harm on a bailiff in 1979.

He admitted spitting at a woman who lived in the flat above Knapp and his then girlfriend in 1985.

Hoogstraten, of High Cross Estate, Framfield denies murder and conspiracy to murder.

David Croke, 59, of Bolney Road, Moulsecoomb, and Robert Knapp, 53, County Limerick, deny murder.

The trial continues.