Land baron, Nicholas Van Hoogstraten, who was convicted of Mohammed Raja's murder in 2002 and spent 17 months in prison, but then was released after appealing the sentence, has once again been found guilty of the crime, but this time by a civil court.

Raja's family won in civil court and Van Hoogstraten may have to pay out as much as £10 million in damages. Hoogstraten did not show up in court nor did he have legal representation. Interviewed later, he said that the whole case was a time wasting exercise. "If I wanted to get this guy bumped off don't you think I would have done a better job of it?"

On the 2nd of June, 1999 Mohammed Raja answered his door at his South London home only to find Robert Knapp and David Croke waiting there with a gun and a knife. Raja was murdered where he stood with two of his grandchildren witnessing the crime. At the time of the murder, Raja and Van Hoogstraten were locked in a legal battle. In the criminal trial, Van Hoogstraten was found guilty of hiring the two thugs, Knapp and Croke, to assassinate Raja to rid him of the annoyance of the lawsuit. As Mr. Justice Lightman, who presided over the civil suit pointed out, his plan seemed to have back fired because, though Raja was stubbornly persistent in pursuing legal justice against Van Hoostraten, it seems the family he left behind is just as resilient. The Raja family sued Van Hoogstraten for aggravated and exemplary damages, personal injury and post-traumatic stress damages and financial dependency.

In his ruling Lightman said, "I am satisfied that the recruitment of the two thugs was for the purpose of murdering Mr. Raja and not merely frightening or hurting him. The use of two violent thugs armed with a shotgun was more than was needed to frighten or injure him. The second shot was deliberately aimed at killing him." The two, Knapp and Croke, are serving life sentences for the murder.

In the criminal case Van Hoogstraten's previous convictions could not be brought up in court, but in the civil case that rule does not apply. His convictions go back to 1956 with a wide array of crimes from a grenade attack against a rabbi to corrupting a prison warder to threatening a barrister in the courtroom.

Van Hoogstraten's worth is estimated at £500 million. He bought his first hotel at the age of 18 and has made his money primarily in real estate both in the UK and in Zimbabwe as well as other countries. He counts controversial Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe as one of his close personal friends and describes him as a "decent and incorruptible politician". Van Hoogstraten enjoys cultivating his brutal image. He's been known to refer to his tenants as "scumbags" and admits freely that he takes retribution against his enemies but that the "punishment fits the crime".

The court ruled that he must pay the Raja family £500,000 in the interim to cover their costs, but final settlement is expected between £8-10 million. Some of his assets in Britain have been frozen pending the final decision of the court.

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