Jailed tycoon 'in asylum boat plan'

The aircraft carrier is docked in Rio de Janeiro but is for sale

Disgraced tycoon Nicholas van Hoogstraten may be involved in plans to house 1,000 asylum seekers on an aircraft carrier moored off Kent.

A company said to be backed by van Hoogstraten is investigating the feasibility of buying HMS Vengeance, a World War II vessel currently docked in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The company would charge the government £75 per week for each of the occupants.

Legal advisors for van Hoogstraten, at the firm Paul Martin and Co, have already been in touch with Thanet District Council about the scheme.

There are many issues to consider, not least the humanitarian one

Sandy Ezekiel, leader of Thanet District Council

The law firm has also contacted the prison service to suggest it could staff the carrier with category D prisoners on "work placements".

The tycoon, who is currently serving 10 years in Belmarsh Prison for manslaughter, would be restricted to acting as a consultant until his release.

The law firm has offered to buy the ship, bought from the Brazilian navy in 2001 by British owners, for £2.25m.

Sandy Ezekiel, the Conservative leader for Thanet District Council, said the council had known nothing about the proposal until Friday - but would consider any serious plans put before it.

Van Hoogstraten would only have an advisory role until his release

"It must be to the benefit of Thanet as a whole and Margate in particular," he said.

"There are many issues to consider, not least the humanitarian one."

"It does concern me the sort of people we have to deal with.

"If the man is as bad as people have made him out to be - and obviously he is - I find it very hard to discuss these issues with people like that."

He said housing asylum seekers was a matter for the government's National Asylum Support Service rather than the council, which had no jurisdiction over the waters off Margate.

Guns fitted

Until his conviction, van Hoogstraten lived in a mansion in Uckfield, East Sussex, named Hamilton Palace.

The HMS Vengeance served with the Royal Navy in World War II but was sold to Brazil in 1956, when it was renamed the Minas Gerais.

The ship, which carried 1,300 crew and had space for 40 aircraft, was taken out of military service in 2000, but still has some guns fitted.