By Jane Peel BBC Home Affairs correspondent

One of Britain's richest men - notorious landlord Nicholas Van Hoogstraten - has been found guilty of the manslaughter of a former business associate.

During the trial at the Old Bailey, the court heard that on 2 July 1999, Mohammed Raja was at home in Sutton in Surrey.

He answered the door to two men, dressed as gardeners. They were wearing floppy hats and carrying a garden fork and a bag. In the bag was a single-barrelled sawn-off shotgun.

van Hoogstraten had a previous record for violence

The men stabbed Mr Raja five times and shot him in the face at close range.

Early on, the police had a suspect, thanks to Mr Raja's two grandsons Waheed and Rizvan Raja.

They were upstairs in the house at the time and rushed to help their grandfather when they heard his shouts.

Both told the Old Bailey jury they had heard him shout in Punjabi: "These are Hoogstraten's men. They've hit me, they've hit me".

Mr van Hoogstraten had done business with Mr Raja - lending him money to buy properties.

Mr Raja was suing his former associate for fraud.

Van Hoogstraten had a reputation for dealing harshly with those he disliked.

Naked

In television documentaries, he had openly spoken of his scorn for certain groups in society.

The tenants who lived in his properties were a particular sore.

"Tenants are filth, by their very nature," he said. "What kind of person is a tenant? A person with no self-respect.

"I don't look after tenants. Why should I look after tenants? One looks after the building, looks after one's asset."

Tenants are filth by their very nature

Nicholas van Hoogstraten

Van Hoogstraten also had ways of dealing with ramblers - the "great unwashed" as he called them.

In 1985 he began building the grandly-named Hamilton Palace in Sussex.

It was a country house with a frontage larger than Buckingham Palace and was intended to house his �200m art collection.

The last thing he wanted was members of the public walking across his estate, so he blocked off a public footpath.

'Arrogant and evil'

"Ramblers, they're the scum of the earth," he said.

The jury in his trial were not told that van Hoogstraten had a criminal record for violence.

In his early twenties he was jailed for four years for a hand grenade attack on the home of a business associate.

The judge then called him an "arrogant and evil young man and a bully".

Mr Raja had become a thorn in van Hoogstraten's side.

Ramblers are the great unwashed

Nicholas van Hoogstraten

He recruited Robert Knapp - a man with a long record for armed robbery - to threaten him. Knapp, in turn, hired David Croke.

But they went too far and killed the businessman. They were found guilty of his murder on Friday.

The two men left too many clues. Eventually, they led the police to them and their paymaster.

Van Hoogstraten's ex-girlfriend had been due to give evidence against him, but retracted her statement on the day she was due in court.

A second witness, a Lebanese businessman, Michel Hamdam, told police van Hoogstraten had asked him if he knew anyone who could get rid of Mr Raja.

Just before the trial began, Mr Hamdam left the country.

Even though what remained of the evidence against him was circumstantial, it was enough to persuade the jury van Hoogstraten was guilty of manslaughter.