Hoogstraten: Business behind bars

Despite his conviction for the manslaughter of rival landlord Mohammed Raja, Hoogstraten's businesses are likely to continue to thrive.

While he sits in Belmarsh high security prison, awaiting sentence in South London, money will continue to pour into his many bank accounts.

Although he may be locked away for life, his business empire will work for him.

One source, a contemporary of Hoogstraten's who declined to be identified, said: "He won't let some iron bars stand in the way. He'll operate from a prison cell just as effectively as he has done before.

"I think he'll see this as just a bit of setback - nothing he can't handle."

That view was backed up by Chris Bull of solicitors and investment managers Adams & Remers in Lewes.

He said: "Theoretically, the fact he has lost his liberty wont directly affect his business interests, although it will affect his ability to run them because he wont have access to a phone or office.

"The fact he is in prison doesn't mean he cannot earn money or accumulate assets so he could still be raking it in while he is inside.

"He can easily delegate and he must have made arrangements - he is evil, not stupid."

Hoogstraten runs his business through a tangled web of interlocking companies.

The staff left running Hoogstraten's other businesses last night closed ranks.

Guiseppe Messina, general manager of The Courtlands Hotel in The Drive, Hove, insisted the hotel was open for business as usual and would remain open "for a very, very long time to come."

Mr Messina, who has managed the hotel for 35 years, said: "The hotel is thriving because of improvements made by Mr Hoogstraten."

Mr Messina shrugged off any suggestion that the hotel could in any way be tarnished by Hoogstraten's conviction for manslaughter.

He said: "This hotel has been here since 1936. It is an amenity for residents and visitors from all over the world. The clientele are keen to stay here. Everything will continue as normal."

An irate Mr Messina refused to say where the profits of the hotel would go or name the company which ran it.

Staff at Hoogstraten's other Hove hotels were just as jittery.

The general manager of Langford's Hotel in Third Avenue refused to give her name and said: "I have no comment to make. I don't want my name in the paper."

David Mitchell, general manager of the Imperial Hotel in First Avenue, said he did not believe business would be affected by Hoogstraten's conviction.

"We are carrying on as normal. Mr Hoogstraten was never involved in the day-to-day running of the hotel."

He said the company was run by management company Twinehurst but did not know where they were based.

Hoogstraten's sister runs two furniture shops in Sussex.

Yesterday, she was at work in the family-run Carlo Lai in Tarring Road, Worthing, which specialises in antique English furniture. But she too had nothing to say about her brother.

She said: "I'm not interested - I've got a business to run."

No one knows exactly how many properties Nicholas Hoogstraten now owns but it is certainly well down on the number he controlled in the Seventies and Eighties.

The tycoon decided to sell most of his portfolio before a property downturn in the late Eighties and at that time invested in hotels.

At one time he had about 400 flatlet houses, most of them in Brighton and Hove, but many in the London borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

Hoogstraten never owns properties under his own name and controls them through a complicated set of companies.

But even with a reduced property empire, he is still one of the biggest landlords in Brighton and Hove.

Hove MP Ivor Caplin is now wondering whether the Proceeds of Crime Bill, which is nearing completion of its course through Parliament, could be employed to make use of the multi-millionaire's assets, including some of his property.

Once the Bill receives the royal assent, it will allow the Crown Prosecution Service to apply for permission to claim assets which have been collected through illegal actions.

The MP said: "There would be an opportunity to decide if he had gained from the proceeds of crime."

He added that Hoogstraten frightened many tenants and ensured myth and legend grew up about him.

Labour councillor Pat Murphy, who specialises in housing, said he hoped local authorities like Brighton and Hove would be given more power by the Government to make compulsory purchase orders.

He said: "It would be poetic justice if this could in any way be applied to some of the homes owned by Hoogstraten.

"He has harassed tenants and been thoroughly evil."

Councillor Paul Elgood, who represents Brunswick and Adelaide ward, said many of his residents breathed a sigh of relief when they heard Hoogstraten would be jailed.

He said: "However, one wonders how managers will now deal with the property stock.

"There are a lot of vulnerable people who will be very anxious for the future."

One man glad to see Hoogstraten off the streets is former Sussex Police Chief Constable Paul Whitehouse.

He said he was "absolutely delighted" with Hoogstraten's conviction.

Mr Whitehouse knew Hoogstraten by reputation long before he joined Sussex Police in 1993.

Hoogstraten remained a thorn in the side of the force throughout Mr Whitehouse's tenure, which ended last year.

Mr Whitehouse, now retired and living in Shropshire, said yesterday: "I am glad police put together the evidence for a conviction. Hoogstraten used others to make the lives of a lot of people a misery."

Tony Greenstein, secretary of the Brighton and Hove Unemployed Workers' Centre, is calling for an inquiry into the past relationship between Hoogstraten and Brighton and Hove police.

He said: "What has come out of the trial about his treatment of tenants is no more than was always known or suspected by people in Brighton and Hove. That's why questions have to be asked.

"Why did Brighton and Hove police do nothing and why did it take the Metropolitan Police to put a stop to it?

"We want to know what the relationship was between the police and this man."

As yet, it is not known what will happen to the companies involved in building Hoogstraten's multi-million pound monument to himself in Framfield.

And solicitor Colm Lyons, who represented families of five people killed in the Palmeira Avenue blaze, in a property formerly owned by Hoogstraten, last night called for a new inquiry into the fire.

He said: "There ought to be a proper investigation, possibly by another police force."

Mr Lyons, who suffered death threats during the investigation, said: "I think families and lawyers will be looking at the whole situation again."

A former business associate of Hoogstraten's, estate agent David Roberts, said the landlord had been "massacred" by the Press.

Mr Roberts, who now lives in Berkshire, was a director of Hoogstraten's company Willoughby's, which bought land in Zimbabwe. He still has shares in the company.

He described Hoogstraten as "a bit of a cowboy" but someone who had done a lot of good for Zimbabwe.

"He was putting money into that country when nobody else was prepared to do it and has built schools and hospitals.

"We had a very congenial business association. I hope he has some directors on board who can run things properly.

"One thing's for sure, he needs all the friends he can get at the moment."