An unemployed man was due to appear in court today charged with murdering one of Brighton's most notorious landlords.

David Terence Croke, 58, who lives in the Brighton area, was due to appear before magistrates in Bexley, Kent, in connection with the killing of Mohammed Sabir Raja.

Mr Raja was shot in the head and stomach by two men as he answered the front door of his home in Sutton, Surrey, in July 1999.

The father-of-six moved to Brighton from his home country, Pakistan, in 1962.

He studied business and took on several jobs to support himself. He gradually built up an empire letting out bedsits.

In July 1995, months after the tycoon was fined thousands of pounds for 17 counts of breaking housing regulations in Goldstone Villas, Hove, the Inland Revenue successfully filed for Raja's bankruptcy.

He and his wife, Starbie, left Brighton to live in Surrey at the beginning of 1997.