Notorious property baron Nicholas Hoogstraten is grooming his son to take over an empire which he says is worth £800 million.

The man once described by a judge as a "self-styled emissary of Beelzebub" is training Rhett, 20, the eldest of his five children.

In his first major television interview since his release from prison, Hoogstraten told the BBC: "I'd like him to shadow me and find out everything that's going on.

"But it's a difficult task because I keep everything close to my chest, nothing is in writing, there are no records of anything.

"He's doing fine. Well, he's my boy isn't he?"

Hoogstraten owned more than 400 homes in Brighton and Hove at the height of his power but he was jailed for ten years in 2002 for the manslaughter of another Brighton landlord, Mohammed Raja, 62.

Mr Raja was shot dead by two men identified at an Old Bailey trial as Hoogstraten henchmen. But Hoogstraten's conviction was later quashed by the Court of Appeal.

In the BBC programme, he is shown visiting some of his properties and there is no sign that he has changed his long-held view that his tenants are "filth".

After his time in jail, he also says he is determined to seek "retribution" against anyone who tried to cheat him out of money while he was inside.

He says: "You know, I'm an expert at arranging things by remote control.

"But by being out here I've got to be far more circumspect in how I deal with issues of retribution. But retribution there will still be.

"Anybody doing business with me, anybody doing anything with me at all, I do things my way and if people don't like it they can f*** off because I'm the oasis in the desert of everything I'm dealing with and you know, b******* to the rest of the world.

"That's the way I am, that's the way I've always been and I'm not going to change."

Rhett says his father can sometimes be a "bit over the top" but that he wants to emulate his no-nonsense style.