Few people outside his Brighton and Hove 'manor' would know that Nicholas Hoogstraten, a man once described as 'Britain's most feared landlord', has changed his name by deed poll.
He now calls himself, on official paperwork at least, Nicholas Adolf Von Hessen. Yes, Adolf.
Some might remember that, back in the Sixties, Hoogstraten began his criminal career by orchestrating a grenade attack on the home of a rabbi.
The man once described as 'Britain's most feared landlord', has changed his name by deed poll and now calls himself, on official paperwork at least, Nicholas Adolf Von Hessen (pictured)
So you might perhaps assume there was an anti-Semitic or racist motive behind his alter ego. If there is, it is far from straightforward.
The rabbi's son owed him money and was his former business partner. And Hoogstraten went on to have six children by four mistresses of African heritage.
His reputation and past deeds — including a gangland feud which ended in a rival being shot and stabbed to death in 1999 and, most notoriously, his strongarm tactics against tenants whom he regarded as 'scum' — precedes him, even though, at 76, he may no longer be in his pomp.
So his intention in choosing 'Adolf' as a middle name was almost certainly to cause gratuitous offence — the equivalent of making a joke in very bad taste — while at the same time serving to mask his modern-day involvement in a complex web of companies.
Because if you thought Hoogstraten, once memorably described by a High Court Judge as 'a self-imagined devil who thinks he is an emissary of Beelzebub', had put his property days behind him, you would be wrong.
He still owns properties in Brighton, Hove and other South Coast towns and in London, using a web of aliases, associates and family members.
Among them are three hotels — the Imperial, the Albany and Langfords — in a part of Hove characterised by grand Georgian terraces on one side of the seafront road, and the lively tourist attractions of the beach on the other.
And as we can reveal today, these hotels are being paid huge sums of taxpayers' money by the Government to house some of the world's most vulnerable people.
According to the Land Registry, the freeholds of all three buildings are owned by Tombstone Ltd, which declared assets of £58 million in its latest accounts.
Four of Hoogstraten's children are directors of the company. By all appearances, the hotels remain part of his family business.
Burly doormen from a private security firm are clearly visible at both Langfords (pictured) and the Imperial, a fine three-star hotel in its heyday but which now has a shabby air
Most, if not all, 'guests' at these hotels are migrants, many of them Afghans who were airlifted out of Kabul following the Allied withdrawal last August.
There are also Eritreans, Kurds and Iranians. Most alarmingly, there are unaccompanied children and pregnant women among the diaspora being housed in what many have described as squalor.
'It is very clear that Nicholas Hoogstraten owns these hotels through his family,' says Hove MP Peter Kyle, who has been visiting the refugees.
'I'm sure anyone who knows that name will be appalled that he — or any private landlord — is allowed to take taxpayers' money to house vulnerable children and young people who have fled war and persecution and need proper supported accommodation.'
When Mr Kyle, Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary, raised the matter with the Home Office in a parliamentary question in November 2021, he was informed that 'accommodation costs are considered commercially confidential'.
But he told us: 'The room rate would be £150 per room per night in usual circumstances.'
Even if the hotels, which have more than 150 rooms between them, charged half that and were only half full, they would be getting £5,625 per night — which works out at more than £2 million a year of taxpayers' money.
If so, it might possibly be the easiest money Hoogstraten and his family have ever made.
The Government called its response to the flood of Afghan refugees arriving in Britain — including translators, the focus of a long-running Daily Mail campaign — Operation Warm Welcome.
How ironic that slogan seems here in Hove. Tripadvisor reviews from over a year ago, before more than 100 migrants started arriving, painted a bleak picture of the inside of the seaside hotels.
'Stayed in this godforsaken hole across 13 days, no idea why my employer chose it [Langfords, where unaccompanied children were subsequently housed and are still being housed] as there are cheaper and better all around Brighton,' one guest posted in 2020, adding: 'Dirty towels . . . damp walls and ceilings . . . non-existent hot water, no heating, rattling windows, dubious stains, indifferent staff (mostly), no breakfast (but you would be scared to eat it anyway).'
At the Imperial, one couple wrote on Tripadvisor that they were put in a damp room with mould on every wall, only to be woken at '06.30 with water coming through the hatch in the ceiling on our second morning'.
It is not clear who is responsible for the day-to-day management of the Hoogstraten hotels, but such reviews make grim reading.
Hoogstraten, a one-time associate of the infamous slum landlord Peter Rachman, quite possibly views migrants with the same contempt as tenants ('scum') and the homeless ('filthiest burdens on the public purse') and would probably approve of the conditions.
At the Imperial, one couple wrote on Tripadvisor that they were put in a damp room with mould on every wall, only to be woken at '06.30 with water coming through the hatch in the ceiling on our second morning'
Burly doormen from a private security firm are clearly visible at both Langfords and the Imperial, a fine three-star hotel in its heyday but which now has a shabby air.
There are at least three pregnant women at the Imperial, and families of five or more in one room with no cooking facilities or space for children to study.
One migrant staying there, who was too scared to give his name or even say where he was from, admitted he felt unsafe, hungry and miserable.
'The food is not our food and there is not enough. We are hungry. There are many children and they are unhappy.'
Last week, the migrants say, they had to stay inside for three days with no explanation from the guards.
A volunteer who runs an unofficial service delivering hot food to refugees added: 'We were asked to take food on Christmas Day to nine young Eritreans at the Imperial.
We cooked them curry from recipes from their country. When we arrived, about 60 people all poured out, desperate.
'Five security guards appeared, made them go back in and questioned us. We went inside and it was very run-down.
'It was like feeding refugees in a camp, not a hotel in Hove. The children and some adults seemed distressed.
'I hate to think how much the Home Office is giving these hotels and how much they are making.'
We do know the overall bill, in fact. The Home Office was forced to admit last week that it is spending £4.7 million every day on housing 25,000 asylum seekers in 'hotels' such as those in Hove.
Current rules do not require hotels to prove they meet strict health and safety requirements before children move in.
In a letter to the Commons Home Affairs Committee
