A DEFENCE barrister claimed this week that there was "not a scrap of evidence" that convicted criminal Kenneth Regan was behind the murders of an Asian businessman and his family.

Regan (55), of South Newton, is alleged to have killed Anil Chohan (46) and his family so he could run the businessman's west London freight company as a front for importing drugs.

It is claimed Regan abducted Mr Chohan after luring him to a meeting with the offer of £3m for his company.

Mr Chohan's body was later buried on Devon farmland with his young wife, two infant sons and mother-in-law, it is alleged.

Regan is standing trial for the five murders with car salesman Peter Rees (39), and former builder William Horncy (52).

In his closing speech to the Old Bailey jury, Regan's defence counsel Paul Mendelle said: "The prosecution have invited you to speculate - there is not a scrap of evidence.

"Regan would have had to be desperate beyond belief to slaughter an entire family for the sake of a business."

Prosecution counsel Richard Horwell had earlier claimed that the whole plan was dreamt up by Regan to get his hands on Mr Chohan's CIBA freight company based in Hatton Cross near Heathrow.

Mr Chohan had agreed to sell his business but underestimated Regan's "duplicity and ruthlessness," the prosecutor said in his closing speech.

"Regan was penniless. He had no legal right or interest in CIBA. There were no backers.

"Regan did not have the collateral to buy a minority interest in CIBA let alone the entire company.

"Regan's motive and intentions are obvious. He was desperate for a return to the days of Captain Cash.

"Banknotes in the boot of a Mercedes and the luxury home.

"There was only one way he could realise such an ambition and that was through drugs.

"That meant the means or disguise under which drugs could be imported into the UK in large quantities. CIBA was the perfect vehicle."

Regan, a convicted drug dealer, had his home and his previous freight company confiscated because of his links to illegal smuggling, the court heard.

"He believed he was entitled to take whatever he could to replace that which had been removed to do this - at no cost to himself and irrespective of the cost to others," said Mr Horwell.

Mr Horwell said Mr Chohan, from Sutton Road, Hounslow, fell for the deception "hook, line and sinker" and agreed to meet Regan near Stonehenge, in February 2003.

He vanished and his wife Nancy (25), their sons Devinder (18 months), and Ravinder (eight weeks), and his mother-in-law Charanjit Kaur (51), disappeared a few days later.

They were buried on land belonging to Belinda Brewin, the best friend of the late celebrity Paula Yates, in Tiverton, Devon, but a month later were dug up and dumped at sea.

Regan, of Forge Close, South Newton, together with former accountant Horncy (52), of Adeline Road, Bournemouth and Rees, of Kings Close, Rowlands Castle, Portsmouth, all deny five charges of murder between February 14 and April 23, 2003.

They further deny the false imprisonment of Mr Chohan between February 12 and April 28, 2003.

The trial continues.