Property millionaire Nicholas Van Hoogstraten today told a jury about a series of payments made to his alleged hitman.

But the tycoon insisted the thousands of pounds that changed hands constituted a loan account.

The prosecution alleges Hoogstraten paid Robert Knapp and David Croke to murder landlord Mohammed Raja, who had accused the tycoon of fraud.

The jury has seen Hoogstraten's diaries detailing payments to Bob and Uncle Bob.

But on his second day giving evidence at the Old Bailey, Hoogstraten said these were loans and payments for a print and a Persian rug.

One entry reads: "£2,000 paid to Bob for No 7".

The jury heard this was for a print, No 7 by American artist Jasper Johns.

Hoogstraten said: "If I was a policeman investigating a murder and I saw in a diary £2,000 paid for No 7, I would home in on that entry.

"Is it the seventh victim? It is like a red rag. But nobody asked me anything about that at all.

"The reality is No 7, which reduced the loan, showed these entries could not possibly be anything other than what it was - it was a loan account."

His barrister, Richard Ferguson QC, asked if Hoogstraten could have paid with cash.

His client said that, when police searched his home, there was between £20,000 and £30,000 in cash in a safe.

Earlier, Hoogstraten wiped away tears as he recalled his relationship with the parents of the alleged hitman Knapp.

Hoogstraten said he allowed Sylvia and Arthur Knapp to move on to his sprawling High Cross Estate, Framfield, near Uckfield, when they retired.

The tycoon said he was very close to the Knapps for a long time and they took over a cottage on the estate in about 1980.

After Mr Knapp died in the mid-1990s his wife asked Hoogstraten if her son could move into an empty property.

Welling up, Hoogstraten told the court: "Mrs Knapp is in her 80s now. After her husband died she became more ill, particularly from the beginning of 1999 onwards.

"She was going into and coming out of hospital. Around the spring of 1999 she asked me if her son could come and occupy one of the empty cottages on the estate so he could be near his mum and take her to hospital. I said No.

"For many years I was very close to Mr and Mrs Knapp senior. My children have always regarded her as a grandmother so it was a difficult decision for me to say I did not want her son anywhere near my property."

Hoogstraten said he eventually let Knapp move into a flat in Framfield Road, Uckfield.

Giving evidence yesterday, Hoogstraten had said it was "an invention, a fabrication, an absolute impossibility" that he murdered Mohammed Raja.

He insisted he had never had a cross word with Mr Raja, 62, who was stabbed and gunned down at his home in July 1999.

He said the sums potentially involved in the fraud case brought by Raja would have been "peanuts" to him and would be written off against tax.

Referring to his relationship with Mr Raja, Hoogstraten said: "I don't believe Mohammed and me ever had a cross word with each other.

"Hard as this may seem or sound like, my relationship with Mohammed basically stayed the same from the day I first clapped eyes on him in early 1982.

"On occasions he would irritate me but I never changed my attitude to him. It was business. You cannot always choose the people who you do business with."

Hoogstraten, 57, denies murder and conspiracy to murder Mr Raja at Sutton, Surrey, on July 2 1999.

David Croke, 59, of Bolney Road, Moulsecoomb, Brighton, and Robert Knapp, 55, of Convent Street, Abbeyfeale, Co Limerick, deny murdering Mr Raja.

The trial continues.