Hoogstraten forced to pay £5m

Van Hoogstraten is now in Belmarsh prison

One of Britain's richest men has been forced to pay £5m to the family of a business associate who was killed by two of his henchmen.

Nicholas van Hoogstraten was jailed for 10 years in October for the manslaughter of Mohammed Raja, who died at his home in Sutton, Surrey in July 1999 after being attacked by two men.

Robert Knapp and David Croke were convicted of murder and jailed for life but van Hoogstraten was acquitted of murder on the grounds that he had only ordered them to "intimidate" Mr Raja in an attempt to persuade him to drop a lawsuit.

We were determined to seek the truth and get justice and now this has been done.

Amjad Raja
Victim's son

Mr Raja's family pursued the lawsuit after his death and on Thursday they were awarded £5m by High Court judge Mr Justice Peter Smith.

He struck out van Hoogstraten's defence to the claim because he had failed to comply with a court order to disclose his assets.

Mr Raja' son, Amjad, said after the hearing: "This is a big victory for us and I dedicate it to my father.

"He is the one who started this and had to die before the truth came out.

"We were determined to seek the truth and get justice and now this has been done."

Victim Mohammed Raja: Stabbed and shot

Mr Justice Peter Smith said freezing orders on van Hoogstraten's known assets should continue until after the civil case scheduled for March 2003 and he imposed a £200,000 fine, suspended for a month, over the failure to disclose assets.

The fine for contempt of court was imposed weekly, rising by 10% each time, and now stands in excess of £1m.

Peter Irvin, representing the Raja family, said van Hoogstraten had had since August to disclose his assets and he said it was feared he may have used the last four months to hide his money in offshore bank accounts.