Despite his unprepossessing looks Regan, 55, imagined himself as a wealthy playboy and international criminal mastermind.

In 1997, as the money rolled in from his drug smuggling enterprises, he drove around in a Mercedes and showered the object of his affections with expensive gifts including a Cartier watch. He revelled in the nickname "Captain Cash".

The following year he was jailed for his involvement in a heroin smuggling ring and a passport racket.

But he was given credit for his "co-operation with the police" - in other words his supergrass activities - and served only four years in jail.

Regan, who changed his name by deed poll from Avery, helped police with four major operations:

He was released in the summer of 2002, but Regan emerged to find he no longer had the cash to support his luxury lifestyle.

Regan was reduced to living with his father in a bungalow in Wiltshire and driving around in a second-hand Peugeot 206.

'Devious and violent'

Michael Gledhill QC, who defended co-defendant Peter Rees, said Regan was a "devious, violent and manipulative liar".

He told the jury: "Regan is extremely good at lying, he is thoroughly devious.

Mr Gledhill said Regan had lied on a mortgage application by saying he had been a partner in Mr Chohan's Ciba business for several years, and told friends similar stories.

Mr Gledhill said: "He was never a partner and never wanted to be. He wanted to own it.

"One witness said he was not a man you could tell what to do because of his temper. He is an entirely self-centred individual and does nothing for anybody except himself."

Manipulator

One example of his manipulative skills came several years ago when he owned a plot of land which he wanted to sell to a housebuilder.

Regan's initial planning application was refused so he invited a group of gypsies onto the site and promised the council he would get rid of them only if they gave him planning permission, which they duly did.

In the Chohan case he thought he would be able to outwit everyone - and especially the police, who he chose to mock.

On the day after dumping the bodies of the Chohan family in the sea off the Dorset coast Regan arranged a meeting claiming Mr Chohan would attend.

Undercover detectives monitored the rendezvous point - by a statue of a bronze pig in the centre of Newport, south Wales - but Mr Chohan failed to turn up.

Police believe the pig statue was deliberately chosen by Regan, who was mocking them.

But he was not as clever as he thought he was and in the end his lies caught up with him.

Two men guilty of family murder

BBC News

Friday, 1 July, 2005

Two men have been found guilty of murdering a millionaire and his family in order to take over his business.

The bodies of Amarjit Chohan, his wife and her mother, from west London, were washed up on the south coast in 2003. Their two children have not been found.

Career criminal Kenneth Regan, 54, of Wiltshire, and his accomplice William Horncy, 51, of Dorset, were convicted of murdering all three generations.

Peter Rees was convicted of Mr Chohan's murder but cleared of the other four.

The 38-year-old, from Portsmouth, Hants, was also convicted of assisting an offender following the eight-month trial.

Indian-born Mr Chohan, his 25-year-old wife Nancy, their two young sons, Devinder and Ravinder, and Mrs Chohan's mother, Charanjit Kaur, 51, disappeared from their Hounslow home in February 2003.

Regan, a convicted drug dealer and police informant, planned to take over Mr Chohan's successful CIBA freight company to use it as a front for importing drugs.

He wanted to make people think the 46-year-old, who was known as a "chancer" and had been to prison for tax evasion, had given up his business and gone abroad, the trial was told.

So he lured Mr Chohan to Stonehenge, Wiltshire, held him against his will for several days, gagged him and forced him to sign over his company before murdering him.

The jury, which took 13 days to come to its verdict, was told how the plan would have worked had it not been for Mrs Chohan's brother, Onkar Verma, in New Zealand.

Bodies dug up

He refused to accept that his mother, his sister and her family would have just vanished.

As police inquiries were about to turn to a farm in Tiverton, Devon, where the defendants had buried the family, the men returned to the farm to dig up the bodies.

The trial heard that on Easter Sunday 2003 the bodies were taken out to sea and dumped.

Two days later, Mr Chohan's body was found floating in the water near Bournemouth pier. His wife's body was found in the same area that July and Mrs Kaur was found in November in a bay off the Isle of Wight.

Paul Mendelle, defending Regan, said he "would have had to be desperate beyond belief to slaughter an entire family for the sake of a business".

After the conviction his legal team maintained he was innocent and was planning to appeal.

Police still do not know how Mr Chohan died and have said they will be asking the men to tell them where to find the bodies of two-month old Ravinder and 18-month-old Devinder.

Det Ch Insp Dave Little, who led the investigation, said it was a crime "utterly beyond the comprehension of decent society".

"A young family, a new family, was entirely wiped out at the hands of these murderous men, in an attempt to line their own pockets," he said.

A Chohan family friend, Suresh Grover, read out a statement on behalf of Mr Verma saying: "The last two years have been a living nightmare.

"The deliberate, premeditated slaughter of my innocent family is akin to me being given a life sentence - a life with no laughter, no happiness and no joy."

The murder trial, which cost more than £10m, is thought to be the longest in the history of the Metropolitan Police and of the Old Bailey.

Family murder men jailed for life

BBC News

Tuesday, 5 July, 2005

Two men who murdered a millionaire and three generations of his family have been jailed for life.

Kenneth Regan, 55, of Wiltshire, and William Horncy, 52, of Dorset, were convicted at the Old Bailey on Friday.

Peter Rees, 39, of Hants, who was found guilty of murdering Amarjit Chohan, of west London, but cleared of killing four others, was also jailed for life.

The judge told Regan and Horncy they should never be released and Rees will have to serve at least 23 years.

The family disappeared from their home in Hounslow, in February 2003.

The men wanted to take over Mr Chohan's freight business and use it to import drugs to the UK.

Judge Sir Stephen Mitchell, passing sentence, told Horncy, of Adeline Road, Bournemouth, and Regan, of Forge Close, Wilton, near Salisbury, they were "highly dangerous men".

He said: "Your crimes are uniquely terrible.

"The cold-blooded murders of an eight-week-old baby and an 18-month-old toddler, not to mention the murders of their mother, father and grandmother, provide a chilling insight into the utterly perverted standards by which you have lived your lives.

"Your characters are as despicable as your crimes. Each of you is a practised, resourceful and manipulative liar."

Rees, of Kings Close, Rowlands Castle, near Portsmouth, was also convicted of assisting an offender.

The bodies of Amarjit and Nancy Chohan and Mrs Chohan's mother Charanjit Kaur, 51, were found washed up off Bournemouth and the Isle of Wight on various dates in the months after they went missing.

Their two young sons Devinder and Ravinder have never been found.

When Mr Chohan's body was discovered a note was found in his sock pointed to convicted drug dealer Horncy as being his killer.

Police said they believed Mr Chohan had been held captive for several days before his death and when he realised he was going to be murdered he concealed the letter which was addressed to Horncy's father.

Det Ch Insp David Little said the crime was the worst he had ever dealt with, saying the family died purely because of "financial greed".

He told BBC News: "All of the officers involved in the case did a fantastic job, it spanned two and a half years and the conclusion proves the amount of work they put into it."

The murder trial, thought to be the longest involving the Met, cost more than £10m.

Chohan murders: Timeline

BBC News

Two men have been convicted of the murder of a family - including two children, one of them eight weeks old. A third man has been convicted of murdering the father and assisting an offender. BBC News traces this crime's history.

1997
Kenneth Regan befriends Belinda Brewin after meeting her at the bar in Harvey Nichols, Knightsbridge, London. He showers her with gifts, including a Cartier watch, and offers to take her to Monte Carlo.

1998
Regan is arrested in possession of 30kg of heroin. He is later jailed for eight years after agreeing to turn Queen's evidence.

2000
Dec: Regan is given a concurrent eight-year sentence for his part in a huge fake passport racket. Among those he gives evidence against is his friend Bill Horncy.

2002
Jun: Regan is released from jail after serving four years. He soon begins to plot ways of making big money. Regan also gets in touch with Belinda Brewin again. She has moved from London to a farmhouse in Devon.

2003
Jan:
Regan tries to organise a £3m deal involving land near Heathrow which Amarjit Chohan has an option to buy.
When this falls through he begins to focus on Mr Chohan's haulage company Ciba Freight, which is based near London's Heathrow airport.

13 Feb:
Mr Chohan disappears after going to meet a man allegedly interested in buying Ciba Freight. He is abducted by Regan, Horncy and Peter Rees and taken back to Regan's father's home near Salisbury, Wiltshire.

15 Feb:
With Rees guarding Mr Chohan, Regan and Horncy travel to Hounslow, west London, and talk their way into Mr Chohan's home. They kill his wife Nancy, her young sons Ravinder and Devinder and her mother Charanjit Kaur. They hire a van and take the bodies to the West Country.

16 Feb:
Mr Chohan is forced to sign a series of blank letters and make a couple of phone calls. Later that night they kill Mr Chohan.

17 Feb:
Regan turns up at Ciba Freight's office with a power of attorney - signed under duress by Mr Chohan - and proceeds to start running the company.

19 Feb:
The five bodies are loaded onto a hired van and driven down to Belinda Brewin's farm near Tiverton, Devon. Regan, Horncy and Rees dig a ditch and bury the bodies, covered with aggregate.

21 Feb:
Regan takes Mr Chohan's car to a friend in Southampton who agrees to dispose of it.

5 Mar:
Nancy Chohan's brother Onkar Verma travels to London from New Zealand to put pressure on police to find out what has happened to his sister.

21 Mar:
The case is referred to Scotland Yard's Serious Crime Group and a week later a detective interviews Regan for the first time.

19 Apr (Easter Saturday):
Regan is spooked by the progress of the police investigation and, fearing they will soon learn of the farm in Devon, he returns with Horncy and Rees and digs up the five bodies.

20 Apr (Easter Sunday):
Having bought a boat, Regan, Horncy and Rees take the bodies out to sea and dump them off Dorset.

21 Apr (Easter Monday):
Police monitor Regan and Horncy at a fictional rendezvous in Newport, south Wales. But neither Mr Chohan nor his supposed kidnappers turn up.

22 Apr:
A body is found floating in the sea off Bournemouth pier.

29 Apr:
The body is confirmed to be that of Mr Chohan. That night, as detectives interview Belinda Brewin, Regan and Horncy, realising the game is up, flee by ferry to France. They then travel to Spain. Rees also goes on the run, hiding out with a friend in Gloucestershire.

30 Apr:
Police begin excavating the field in Devon. They later discover DNA belonging to the Chohan family and other incriminating items.

14 May:
Rees is arrested in a pub in Coleford in the Forest of Dean.

15 Jul:
Another body is discovered by fishermen off the Isle of Wight. It is later identified as being that of Nancy Chohan.

2 Aug:
Regan, having run out of money in Spain, is arrested at a campsite in Ghent, Belgium.

2 Sep:
Horncy, fed up with life on the run, returns to Dover and gives himself up.

7 Sep:
A third body is washed up on the Isle of Wight. It is later identified as being that of Mr Chohan's mother-in-law, Charanjit Kaur.

2004
8 Nov:
Regan, Horncy and Rees go on trial at the Old Bailey. All deny murder and false imprisonment.

Regan, Horncy and Rees: The Murder Game

by Guy Toyn

Courtnewsuk.co.uk

Ken Regan had lived the criminal high life and was desperate to taste it again.

Through drugs and bogus passports he had rubbed shoulders with some of the country's most notorious gangland figures.

Dealing heroin in the late 1980s had made him a fortune and set him up as a country gentleman.

Regan, 56, drove the latest Mercedes sports cars and invested in a freight company which he was using as a front for drugs smuggling and money laundering.

It all went wrong in 1998 when police caught him with 25 kilos of top grade heroin and wads of cash in the boot of his car. He was jailed for eight years.

When he was released Regan was desperate to start operations again but he had no money to invest in a freight firm.

The solution was simple. If he couldn't buy a firm he would steal it.

Regan's target for the theft was millionaire Anil Chohan who had been jailed for three years for tax evasion and later became involved in the exporting of pallet loads of ‘chat’ to the United States - the soft drug chewed by North Africans.

Mr Chohan was desperate to sell his freight firm - importing chat was a high pressure job with crowds of Africans regularly turning up at the warehouse hoping for a sample from the latest shipment.

Kill the entire family

It may never have occurred to Regan that to get control of the Heathrow based company CIBA Freight he would have to kill not only Mr Chohan but his entire family.

To put his plan into action he recruited two accomplices who he had known thought the criminal underworld for many years - Bill Horncy, 53, and Peter Rees, 40.

Rees would be used to guard Mr Chohan at Regan's father's house in Salibsury while the two others made the arrangements for the 'transfer' of the business.

The final member of the team was Regan's unwitting dupe Belinda Brewin, 43, the ex PR executive and former best friend of Paula Yates, the late wife of Bob Geldolf.

Regan was besotted with her and wanted the glamorous divorcee to be the front for the takeover of CIBA Freight.

Coincidentally she had 50 acres of land at Great Coleford House at Stoodleigh near Tiverton in Devon - perfect place to bury a body.

Regan began calling Mr Chohan in February of 2003 claiming he had Dutch backers who wanted to buy the firm and he became a regular visitor at the offices.

He also began assembling the kit that would be needed to hold Mr Chohan captive while he signed the necessary documents - the drug GHB and rolls of brown packing tape from the victim's warehouse which would be used to 'mummify' him.

On Thursday, February 13 2003, Mr Chohan was invited to a business meeting at Stonehenge and told his workforce: 'I'm off to do a deal.' He was never seen alive again.

Father's home used as house od death

Mr Chohan was taken to Regan's father's home in Forge Close, Salisbury, where he was held for three days.

He suffered a living nightmare as Mr Chohan was drugged, tortured and made to sign away his livelihood.

Throughout the ordeal he would have known his family were in grave danger as he was made to record messages telling them not to worry, write letters explaining his disappearance and sign 23 blank pieces of paper which would be used by the gang to write different letters after he was dead.

Regan may have involved the Chohan family as a lever, forcing the businessman to hear their terrified voices as he sat bound, gagged and helpless.

But somehow he managed to find the courage and guile to conceal a bank letter sent to Regan at the Salisbury address in his sock.

The clue from beyond the grave would nail Regan and his accomplices and leave his lawyers desperately grasping at claims of a police fit-up.

At first Regan coolly played the concerned friend as he assured Anil's young wife Nancy, 24, her husband was returning home soon. She was shown the letters and played the recordings.

But two days after Mr Chohan disappeared Nancy, their sons Devinder 18 months, Ravinder eight weeks and Mrs Chohan's widowed mother Charanjit Kaur, 51 were also murdered in their home in Hounslow, west London.

Police believe they were all probably strangled.

Buried under 48 tonnes of rock

Their bodies were taken to the farm in Tiverton to share Mr Chohan's grave and entombed under 48 tonnes of stone and gravel.

As he buried the family with a mechanical digger Regan could not resist a sick joke about his landscaping experience and told neighbouring farmer Keith Luxton: 'I've done a lot of driveways for Pakistanis.'

Staff at CIBA Freight knew Mr Chohan was 'a chancer' and they accepted Regan's cover story that he and his family had fled after getting into trouble over the chat deals.

But Onkar Verma, Mrs Chohan's brother who lived in New Zealand, refused to believe she had simply disappeared and called the police.

When detectives spoke to Brewin and she revealed her connection with Regan he knew it was only a matter of time before the farm was searched and the grave discovered.

He had to buy time so the bodies could be removed and characteristically combined it with his last big joke.

Regan told police Anil Chohan had asked him to supply him with a false passport and had arranged to meet him at the bronze pig in Newport, south Wales, trading on the slang name for police officers.

Detectives kept the pair under observation as they waited at the pig and saw them making exaggerated head scratching gestures when Mr Chohan failed to turn up.

Regan and Horncy were 'utterly removed from the horror of their actions' and believed they could afford a laugh because the bodies would never be found.

Grim task of exhumation

The gang then began the grim task of digging up the family and dumping the corpses in the Channel in a small boat they had bought for the purpose.

Horncy would tell how he looked down into the burial pit that weekend to see the businessman's body trussed up in a sheet 'like a Christmas cracker' before they slung it into the back of a van.

But two days after the burial at sea later Mr Chohan's body was found by a canoeist near Bournemouth Pier and the bank letter sent to Regan at his father's address was discovered.

The bodies of the two women were also recovered from the water but those of the two children were never found.

Regan and Horncy were sentenced to die behind bars when they were both given whole life sentences at the Old Bailey.

Rees was ordered to serve at least 23 years of a life sentence.