Millionaire businessman Nicholas Hoogstraten has been arrested in connection with the death of a slum landlord.

The 58-year-old property tycoon was held at his Courtlands Hotel in The Drive, Hove, yesterday by officers from the Metropolitan Police serious crime squad.

He was driven to a south London police station where he was being questioned last night.

It is understood that police were searching his properties in Sussex, including Hamilton Palace in Framfield, near Uckfield.

Scotland Yard would say only that a 58-year-old man from Framfield had been arrested in connection with the alleged murder of Mohammed Raja on July 2, 1999.

Mr Raja, a 62-year-old Brighton landlord died outside his home in Surrey. He had gunshot and knife wounds.

The father-of-six's body was discovered by his two teenage grandsons.

A Brighton man has been charged with his murder.

The trial of David Terence Croke, 58, of Bolney Road, Moulsecoomb, Brighton, is due to start in the autumn.

Mr Raja gradually built up an empire letting out bedsits in Brighton after moving to Sussex from Pakistan in the Sixties.

Once dubbed the town's most notorious landlord, Mr Raja moved to Sutton in 1995.

He left behind about 100 convictions for breaching numerous housing regulations by letting out unfit properties.

Mr Raja's murder featured on BBC's Crimewatch programme in 1999.

A year ago, Hoogstraten proudly showed Argus reporters around his unfinished £30 million Hamilton Palace.

Inside is a mausoleum where the tycoon will be buried, surrounded by some of his favourite pieces of French and Egyptian art.

The name Hamilton comes from the town in Bermuda where he bought his first hotel in the Sixties.

He built up a property empire that made him Britain's 140th richest man with a fortune worth an estimated £400 million.

The 12 months that followed have not been so kind to the millionaire.

Last December, in Zimbabwe, where his land, property and mines are worth an estimated £32 million, squatters overran tens of thousands of acres of his prime farm- land.

He also has homes in France, St Lucia, Barbados and America.

He is still involved in a battle with ramblers about a blocked footpath that crosses land near Hamilton Palace.