Nicholas van Hoogstraten
| Nicholas van Hoogstraten | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Nicholas Marcel Hoogstraten 25 February 1945 Shoreham-by-Sea, England, UK |
| Occupation | Property tycoon, entrepreneur, businessman |
| Net worth |
 £500 million (estimated) |
| Children | 6 |
| Website | http://www.nicholasvanhoogstraten.com/ |
Nicholas van Hoogstraten (born Nicholas Marcel Hoogstraten; 25 February 1945) is a British businessman and real estate magnate.
Van Hoogstraten is known for his business empire as well as his controversial life story: in 1968, he was convicted and sent to prison for paying a gang to attack a business associate. In 2002, he was sentenced to 10 years for the manslaughter of a business rival; the verdict was overturned on appeal and he was subsequently released, but in 2005 he was ordered to pay the victim's family £6 million in a civil case. He has been estimated to be worth £500 million, although he claims his assets in the UK have all been placed in the names of his children.
Hoogstraten was born in Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex, to working-class Catholic parents: Charles, a shipping agent, and Edna, a housewife. His mother was of German and English heritage, his father was of Dutch and French descent. He was educated at a local Jesuit school, but is also known to have attended Blessed Robert Southwell Catholic School in Goring-by-Sea.
Aged 11 he started selling stamps to noted collectors, from his personal collection that he claimed to be worth £30,000. It was later discovered that he was paying fellow-pupils to steal stamps to order from specialist shops along the south coast. Aged 14 he began wearing a suit to school, where he would excuse himself from classes to read the Financial Times and attend to business.
He left school in 1962, aged 17, and joined the merchant navy for a year. He began his property business in the Bahamas with an initial investment of £1,000 realised from the sale of his stamp collection. On return to the UK he built up his capital through a loan sharking business based in towns along the south coast of England, where he would take property deeds as the backing collateral. This allowed him to build up substantial property interests along the south coast and in London. In his early career he owned a nightclub in Brighton, calling Rod Stewart "a greedy little runt" in a row over takings.
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