Jailed tycoon Nicholas Hoogstraten is confident he will win an appeal against his conviction for manslaughter.

In a letter to The Argus from high security Belmarsh prison in London, the millionaire killer insists he should never have been locked away.

Hoogstraten, 58, from Framfield, near Uckfield, was sentenced to ten years imprisonment last year for the manslaughter of Mohammed Raja. He has been granted leave to appeal and in the letter, dated April 2, he says "professionalism" will prevail at his appeal hearing.

He says: "I believe that resentment in the judiciary (and envy) is only at the lower levels. When one deals with those at the top, as in all fields, professionalism takes over."

He says the grounds for his appeal are so "fundamental" that "even a lay person" could understand them.

He adds: "Shortly after my conviction, a circuit judge wrote to me to tell me I had been wrongly convicted due to a misdirection. He was so concerned he also told me he had written to the Lord Chancellor."

He writes that case law and precedents for the last 20 years support his grounds for appeal.

The first ground is that the trial judge misdirected the jury in not advising them to acquit Hoogstraten if they did not think he intended Mr Raja's death.

The second is that Hoogstraten's defence was not given the opportunity to defend a verdict of manslaughter and the trial was therefore unfair.

Grounds three and four have been merged and together submit the prosecution's case was based on hearsay.

The letter reads: "My lawyers assure me there are no grounds whatsoever to challenge my appeal on grounds one and two but the CPS are invited to prepare argument on ground four.

"Of course, I only need to succeed on one ground but we need to go through the process."

Hoogstraten says Mr Raja was not his business associate or rival.

He writes: "Raja was only ever a slum landlord on the brink of bankruptcy and never a business associate of mine."

Hoogstraten's solicitor Giovanni di Stefano is waiting to see whether the Crown Prosecution Service will contest the action.

He said: "The grounds for appeal that have now been received are probably the most powerful I have ever seen in 20 years of international practice."